Antoine Valois-Fortier


Antoine Valois-Fortier is a Canadian judoka who won the bronze medal in the −81 kg category at the 2012 Olympics, becoming the first Canadian to win a medal in Olympic judo in twelve years and the fifth to win one in Canadian history.

Career

Valois-Fortier entered the 2012 Olympics ranked 21st in the world in his weight class. He pulled off several upset victories, including a win over Olympic gold medalist Elnur Mammadli, to make the quarterfinals. He lost to Ivan Nifontov of Russia, but made the repechage and defeated Emmanuel Lucenti of Argentina to enter the bronze medal match against Travis Stevens, which he then won. Valois-Fortier's win is Canada's first Olympic medal in Judo since 2000, which was a silver won by his coach Nicolas Gill, and only the fifth won by a Canadian in Olympic history.
At the 2016 Olympics he won his first two bouts, but then lost the third bout to the eventual gold medalist Khasan Khalmurzaev and the repechage match to a bronze medalist Takanori Nagase.

Honours

In 2012 Valois-Fortier was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.