Kondo Siblings Win Judo Gold Within 30 Minutes at Asian Games

At the 2026 Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, siblings Mitsuki and Hayato Kondo secured gold medals in judo on September 30, with their victories occurring within half an hour of each other. The achievement marks only the second time in recent history that Japanese siblings have won gold on the same day in judo, following Olympic champions Ichita and Uta Abe's achievement at Tokyo 2021.

Mitsuki Kondo, 21, won the women's 48kg title with an ippon victory in the final moments, pinning Kazakhstan's Abiba Abuzhakynova in a yokoshiho gatame hold with 11 seconds remaining. She is regarded as the successor to 2024 Paris Olympic gold medalist Akatsuki Tamada in her weight class. Her brother Hayato, 25, followed in the men's 60kg final, defeating Paris 2024 Olympic champion Yeldos Smetov of Kazakhstan with two yuko scores—one midway through the contest and another in the closing minutes—to claim Japan's second judo gold of the day. Hayato's victory marks the first men's 60kg gold for Japan at the Asian Games in 20 years, since Tatsuaki Ejitani's win at the 2006 Doha Games.

Both siblings are from Takeo, Saga Prefecture. Hayato, competing for Park24, previously appeared at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games. Mitsuki, studying at Tokai University, defeated Japan's top 48kg competitor Wakana Koga in April's national championship selection tournament before her Asian Games success. Hayato expressed the emotional impact of seeing his sister's victory: "When I actually saw her accomplish that right in front of me, it really pressed a switch in me and got me fired-up."

Mitsuki vowed that the siblings would "work together and definitely win Olympic golds together" ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Their shared success on the same day represents an exceptionally rare achievement in judo and has drawn comparisons to the Abe siblings' historic performance. The Kondo siblings join a select group of Japanese judo athletes preparing for the 2028 Olympics, following the competition at the ongoing Asian Games.