The brilliant sportswoman Kanae Yamabe is a judoka, who competes in the +78kg division and favours the harai Goshi technique. She is a 3x IJF Grand Slam Champion, a IJF Grand Prix Champion, a Summer Universiade Champion, as well as a World Masters Silver-medalist, a World Championships medalist, and an Olympic Bronze-medalist.

Born and raised in Hokkaido, Japan, Yamabe took up judo at the age of six, and by the time she was 19 she had won the Bronze in the +78kg weight class at the 2009 Juniors World Judo Championships. The same year she took part in the Summer Universiade winning Silver in the open category. In 2010 she took part in the IJF Grand Slam taking Bronze in the +78 kg category, and followed this in 2011 by winning a women’s team Gold at the Summer Universiade.

Yamabe continued to rack up the IJF Grand Slam medals, taking a further seven, including three Golds, between 2013 and 2017. She also took a Bronze in 2013 and a Gold in 2015 at the IJF Grand Prix, while at the World Masters she took a Silver in 2015 and a Bronze in 2016. She had also taken Bronze at the World Championships in 2015. While at her first Olympic Games, in Rio 2016, she also won Bronze.