Kim Kim

Career

Kim was considered one of the Big Three Judokas of the -73 kg class in South Korea, along with Lee Won-Hee and Wang Ki-Chun. In the gold medal match, he defeated two-time Olympic medalist Leandro Guilheiro of Brazil by scoring a waza-ari with ouchi-gari in extra time. Kim avenged his Beijing 2008 Olympic Games loss to Ole Bischof in round of 16.

He beat Srdjan Mrvaljevic of Montenegro in the final match by scoring a waza-ari with osaekomi-waza. Kim has had several nicknames over the course of his career, including "Man of One Arm Wins" for his successes through injury, "Korean Tiger" for his aggressive play and iconic status in South Korean judo, and "Energizer Bunny" for his quick and relentless physical style of judo. He is known for fighting in major competitions, including the Olympics and World Championships, despite plagued with injuries.

Kim was granted exemption from South Korea's mandatory military service in 2010, after winning at the Guangzhou Asian Games. Kim is a devout Christian, and prays before and after his fights. (as of 30 October 2015).

Achievements

• Kim won a gold medal in the -73 kg class at the 2004 World Junior Judo Championships in Budapest, Hungary. At the 2005 Asian Judo Championships in Tashkent, he won a gold medal in the -73 kg class. But in 2007, he moved up in weight to avoid the fierce competition, and won a gold medal in the -81 kg category at the 2008 Asian Judo Championships in Jeju.
  
  Kim competed in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China and won the silver medal in the -81 kg class. In the preliminary rounds, he defeated 2006 European champion Serguei Shundikov of Belarus by points and 2007 European champion Robert Krawczyk of Poland by ippon. Kim edged out 2008 European champion João Neto of Portugal by points in the quarterfinals.
  
  In the semifinal, Kim beat 2005 World Champion Guillaume Elmont of the Netherlands. He lost to 2005 European champion Ole Bischof of Germany in the final, though Kim had defeated all of the European champions from 2006 to 2008 in the previous rounds. Kim won his first major gold medal at the 2010 World Judo Championships held in Tokyo, Japan.
  
  Kim became a two-time world champion at the 2011 World Judo Championships held in Paris, France. In Summer Olympics 2012, Kim won gold medal in men's -81 kg division, defeating German Judoka Ole Bischof.