The 2008 Beijing Olympics are in full swing after a dramatic and awesome opening ceremony. East Bay judoka Sayaka Matsumoto got little chance to let it sink in before her highly anticipated match with two-time Olympic gold medalist Ryoko Tani of Japan.

The match went the full five minutes, with Matsumoto giving her all. Alas, Tani showed why she is possibly the world’s most successful female judoka as she beat Matsumoto by two half-points.

Because Tani advanced to the final round, Matsumoto got one more shot at the finals by facing Chinese fighter Wu Shugen in the repechage round, but lost by ippon to the lighting-fast Wu.

Now that the competition is over, Matsumoto has some time to reflect, relax and take in the sights of Beijing.

Saturday, August 9

I competed today and now it is 10:15 p.m. here in China and I am exhausted.

After getting back from the opening ceremonies last night at 11 p.m. or so, I slept a little bit, and weighed in at 7 a.m. After I ate, I went back to my room and rested for a minute and took the 10 a.m. bus over to the venue. I started warming up at 11:15 or so for my big match against Tani.

I wasn’t really nervous as much as I was excited to be competing against her. In my mind I had built her up to be super-human because of all her accomplishments, but in reality, she was just like you and me.

One thing I definitely have to say is that she is a very smart, experienced player. Once she scored a yuko on me, she was not going to take ANY chances, and was playing very cautious. This is what smart judo players do when they have the lead.

Nonetheless, I lost the match, but I felt like I gave it my all. I was able to hang the whole time with the legendary Tamura (Tani’s maiden name), and what a way to experience my first Olympic Games!

After my match with her, I fought a strong Chinese girl in the loser’s bracket. We were even until the last minute, when I got thrown for ippon with a cross leg grab. I just lost my focus for two split seconds and got caught. It only takes a few seconds for a mistake like that to cost you the match, and in this case, it did.

All in all, I am happy that I competed the way I did, but still disappointed that I lost. For me, it doesn’t matter if it’s a local tournament or the Olympics, losing is still disappointing. But I feel like I gave it my best effort and that’s all I could do.

The competition still has six more days to go and I am looking forward to seeing such great judo.

I’ll write more to you soon.

Thanks for all your messages!

Sayaka

Sunday, August 10

So it’s 6 a.m. here in China the day after I competed. Last night while writing my previous e-mail, I was a bit delirious from lack of sleep, but now I feel much better.

Today begins Day 2 of the judo competition. Should be exciting, with the ever-competitive 66 kg men’s weight class and women’s 52 kg weight class.

Something interesting that I noticed yesterday was that everyone in 48 kg and 60 kg that placed top seven were from different countries. These countries were North and South Korea, Romania, Canada, Uzbekistan, Russia, Japan, Israel, the Netherlands, Austria, France, Argentina, Hungary, Portugal, Great Britain and Cuba.

This just shows the depth of judo — the fact that 16 different countries can come in the top seven in each different weight. Who would have ever thought that someone from Uzbekistan would be an Olympic bronze medalist? That may be their country’s only medal, and it was in judo. At this stage, everyone is tough and no country can be underestimated.

Did I mention to you that my dad is here now? He came a few days ago and it was awesome having him at the tournament, where I could hear him yelling for me during my matches. He, Asanuma Sensei, Annie (Shiraishi) and our other friend Mike Eldred went to eat Chinese food last night for dinner. It is nice to be able to eat again!

Well, now that my competition is over I get to relax a little bit. I may go do some shopping and buy some gifts.

I can’t say thank you enough for all your kind words and e-mails. It really means a lot to me knowing that so many people are behind me.

Sayaka

Monday, August 11

Well, even though I’m done competing, the Games have just begun. Luckily judo gets done in the next few days so that the team can enjoy watching other sports and not just judo.

These past few days have been really exciting. Yesterday our teammate Taylor Takata had a great day and ended up going 2-2 and placing ninth. He beat some really tough players in the first few rounds and we thought that he may end up in the medal rounds.

Today Val (Gotay) fought and so did Ryan (Reser), and Val went 1-1, losing to Isabel Fernandez who was the Olympic champ back in 2000. Ryan lost a really close match to Mongolia but fought really tough.

Countries that you would never hear of normally won medals yesterday and today, including an awesome performance by a man from Azerbaijan who chucked the Korean in the finals of the men’s 73 kg like a little baby.

The Olympics are an amazing experience and there are many ups and downs. Today there were so many surprises in judo, especially in the women’s division (57 kg), where the reigning world and Olympic champions both lost. A virtually unknown Italian won the division.

It just goes to show that anything can happen and that no one can be taken for granted at this level. Judo is a sport where it’s not over until that buzzer rings and you can get thrown in the last second even though you’re up by a wazari, five yukos and 10 kokas.

I’m excited to see what will happen tomorrow and now that I can really enjoy the games, it’s even better.

These last few days I’ve been hanging out with my dad and Asanuma Sensei, but my dad goes home tomorrow. We went to some authentic Chinese restaurants, which was an interesting experience. They even had turtle on the menu (needless to say, we didn’t try it).

Anyways, hope this e-mail doesn’t bore people but I’m gonna keep writing until I leave (which is in about two weeks).

Love,

Sayaka