Both judokas way to the gold was unique and had its own history. 

Deguchi and her teammate Jessica Klimkait, a Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist, were competing to take a higher position in the World ranking list to take the lone Olympic berth for Canada in this weight category. 

Klimkait did her best and finished second, but Deguchi took the first place in the ranking and booked her ticket to Paris.

She had a tough fight in the semi-final against home favourite Sarah Leonie Cysique. She scored a waza-ari in regulation time, but it was waved off for being too close to the ground. Higuchi attacked throughout the bout, while Cysique looked for her chances on the counter. The two went for the gold with two shidos and finally, at the end of the 9th minute of the fight, the referee warned Cysique for the third time to give the victory to the Canadian. 

The other semi-final in the women's -57 kg category featured young Korean star Mimi Huh, the 2024 World Champion, and Rafaela Silva of Brazil, the Rio 2016 champion. The opponents went to the golden point, where the Korean scored an ippon to win the bout and advance to the final. 

The final was the rematch of the 2024 World Championships, which lasted 13 minutes and was won by the Korean with shidos (cautions). The final match at the Olympics had almost the same scenario with two judokas receiving two shidos during the golden score. But this time Deguci's attacks made the referees give the third shido to Huh. Deguchi won Canada's first gold medal at Paris 2024.

Haruka Fukanobo of Japan who had lost to Cysique in the quarter-finals won her repechage and third-place bout against Silva to claim the bronze medal. Cysique also took home the bronze medal. 

Heydarov has been outstanding for years, but he always has been a step away from the biggest wins of his career. But 2024 was a breakthrough for him. He never lost a bout, won his fourth European and first world title and went to Paris as the undisputed contender for gold. 

The Azerbaijani had two hard fights in the first rounds but managed to claim victories by the golden scores. On the other side of the bracket, Akil Gjakova from Kosovo defeated 2023 World runner-up Manuel Lombardo from Italy. Both Gjakova and Lombardo defeated Heydarov in 2023. But in Paris, Heydarov made no mistakes. He scored a waza-ari in the sixth minute of the bout and went to the final.

Few could have predicted Joan-Benjamin Gaba (France) and Adil Osmanov (Moldova) in the second semi-final of the weight category. The lower part of the draw also featured 2023 World champion Nils Stump, London 2012 champion and Tokyo 2020 runner-up Lasha Shavdatuashvili and 2017 World champion Soichi Hashimoto (Japan). 

However, Gaba defeated Shavdatuashvili and Hashimoto with shidos on his way to the semi-finals, while Stump lost his first bout to Mongolia's Erdenebayar Batzaya and the latter to Osmanov in the quarter-finals.

In the semi-final, Gaba gave his opponent no chance, scoring a waza-ari and an ippon in two minutes.

The final bout between Heydarov and Gaba was one the toughest contests. Each had to shidos at the 10th minute of the bout when Heydarov scored a beautiful ippon to complete his gold medal collection.

Hashimoto and Osmanov defeated Gjakova and Lombardo respectively to take the bronze medals.

30 July will see in action athletes from the women’s -63 kg and men’s 81 kg weight categories.