The All Japan Judo Federation published JJ Voice No.190 on 28 October, with NIIZOE Saki as the subject. She was born in Kyoto Prefecture in 1996 and now coaches the judo club at Yamanashi Gakuin University, her alma mater.
Her record includes bronze at the 2022 World Championships and the -70 kg title at the 2023 World Championships, followed by seventh place at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in the same category. She holds the Kodokan women's fourth dan.
In the piece she describes her guiding principle as ムリしない, or not overreaching: rather than stopping training, she raised her own threshold gradually so she could keep working at high intensity without a serious injury.
She now passes the same idea to her students, together with finding a mental stabiliser, and says she wants them to avoid unnecessary overreach.
