The other day, Ryoko Tani, one of the famous Judo athletes in Japan won the Summer 2010 House of Councillors election. She is commonly known as 'Yawara-chan'. Since she won the International Women's Judo Championships in 1990, she has been very popular as a top judo athlete. She got seven world titles and she won the 48kg-category gold medal from Sydney Olympics in 2000 and the Athens Olympics in 2004.
When the Democratic Party of Japan announced that Tani would represent the party as a proportional candidate in the election, Tani declared that she still intends to pursue her Judo career. Her intention was severely criticized because people thought that she should concentrate either one.
She was born in 1975. It is amazing that she is still continuing her career as top athlete. She did not retired after her marriage and delivery. In Beijing Olympics, she got bronze medal though she had a large blank because of maternity leave. As she have not yet taken part in any competition last two years, it is almost impossible to go to the next Olympics.
However, it seems that nobody care her reality when they criticized her. The reason she have not yet give up her career as a judo player is not for gold medal. I think she know that is almost impossible anymore better than any others. The reason is that the ratio of judo in her life.
People take it for granted that she has been playing judo for more than 20 years. She have not just played it but played as a top athlete. No doubt, that require unthinkable endeavor and time. If I considered her time and effort so far, I cannot blame her at all. Some disguise of famous people become a member of the parliament. I even feel, however, that she may be worthy of the honer.
When she got pregnant 2 years ago, no mass media celebrate her. They just reported that "it becomes impossible for her to take part in the next Olympics". The value of her in mass media seems to bring gold medal to Japan.
Her strength is mentality. She has been expected to play as a top athlete and she never betrayed such expectation. In addition, I have not heard that she complain mass media. If you see her on TV, she is very polite. That is the reason why I respect her. Unfortunately, my mentality is not so strong and I am wondering how I can learn her mentality.
