majlinda kelmendi

The great sportswoman Majlinda Kelmendi is a judo coach and former judoka, who competed in the -52kg weight class. She is an Olympic Champion, a 2x World Champion, a 3x European Champion, a European Games Champion, and a World Masters Champion, as well as a 7x IJF Grand Slam Champion, and an incredible 10x IJF Grand Prix Champion. In 2014 she topped the IJF Women’s Prestige World Ranking List, while her Gold medal win at the 2016 Rio Olympics marked the first time a Kosovan athlete had won a medal at the Olympic Games.

Born and raised in the former Yugoslavia (now Kosovo), Kelmendi started judo at a young age, and by the time she was 18 had won two Golds at the World and European Junior Championships. She took a second European Junior Championships Gold in 2010. Her medal tally then continued to rise in competitions across the globe, and between 2010 and 2021 she won an incredible twelve IJF Grand Prix medals (including ten Golds), eleven IJF Grand Slam medals (including seven Golds), a Gold and Silver at the World Masters, four European Championships medals (three of which were Gold), a European Games Gold, and two Golds and a Bronze medal at the World Championships.

Kelmendi’s proudest moments on the mat was taking part in the Olympic arena. At London 2012 she chose to represent Albania, as she is also a citizen of that country and at the time Kosovo wasn’t recognised by the Olympic committee. But for the Rio 2016 Olympics Kelmendi could represent Kosovo as her nation had been granted full membership in 2014. She was her country’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony and she went on to win Gold, Kosovo’s first ever Olympic medal. She also competed at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics.