“Five seconds, nine seconds, 46 seconds—that was all it took!” The 19-year-old monster who sobbed at the Asian Games throws the world No. 1 aside and becomes world champion

[Financial News] Just eight days ago, the resolve of the 19-year-old youngest member of the team, who wept uncontrollably on the mats in Nagoya, Japan, was beyond imagination. Still smarting from the painful loss that left her with an Asian Games silver medal, she flew without a break to Baku, Azerbaijan. There, Lee Hyun-ji (19, Yong In University), the rising star of South Korean judo, stormed to the top of the World Championships, tossing opponents from the world No. 1 to an Olympic medalist with lightning-fast ippons.
World No. 4 Lee Hyun-ji won gold by decisively defeating French veteran Romane Dicko (No. 3) in the women’s over-78kg final at the 2026 International Judo Federation (IJF) World Championships, held at the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku, Azerbaijan, on the 10th (local time). Lee scored a waza-ari with ashi-guruma before sealing the match with an ippon via kesa-gatame. Her victory gave South Korean judo a gold medalist in the women’s heaviest division at the World Championships for the second consecutive year, following Kim Ha-yun (Ansan City Hall) last year.
Lee Hyun-ji’s performance that day was nothing short of monstrous. No one could stop her. In the first round, she finished Moira Morillo (Dominican Republic) with a ko-soto-gari ippon just five seconds into the match. In the second round, she threw Karen Leon (Venezuela) with a koshi-guruma ippon in just nine seconds. Asya Tavano of Italy, the world No. 6 whom she faced in the quarterfinals, was also crushed with a yoko-shiho-gatame ippon almost as soon as the match began.


The highlight was her semifinal bout against world No. 1 Raz Hershko of Israel. Facing the world’s top judoka, Lee stunned the arena by scoring a picture-perfect ko-soto-gari ippon in just 46 seconds.
Dicko, her opponent in the final, was a seasoned veteran who had won bronze medals at both the Tokyo and Paris Olympics. But she had no answer to the 19-year-old’s youthful confidence. Lee put her on the defensive with osoto-gari from the outset and was not fazed at all, even after receiving one shido while defending against groundwork. Instead, with 1 minute and 44 seconds remaining, she scored a waza-ari with a lightning-fast right-sided ashi-guruma, then climbed onto Dicko like a wild beast and sealed the ippon with kesa-gatame.


Lee Hyun-ji, daughter of Lee Chi-hun, executive director of the Jeju Provincial Ssireum Association and a former ssireum wrestler, inherited her father’s “ssireum DNA.” She is judo’s brightest prospect, having caused an upset by defeating senior Kim Ha-yun at the domestic selection trials. She wept uncontrollably after a painful counterattack left her with silver in the Nagoya Asian Games final on the 2nd, but rather than give in to despair, she chose to take on the World Championships head-on—and ultimately proved her worth with the most dazzling gold medal.
Lee Hyun-ji made South Korean judo’s only medal in the individual events at this World Championships a gold one. The 19-year-old “queen of the heaviest division,” whom even the IJF praised as “an explosive athlete who puts everything into every technique,” has now become the woman to beat worldwide as the leading favorite for gold at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.


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