Montréal, March 22, 2025 – On Saturday, Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard competed in her first tournament since the Paris Olympic Games eight months ago. The 30-year-old athlete celebrated her comeback by stepping onto the top of the podium in the under-63 kg category at the Tbilisi Grand Slam in Georgia.
In today’s big final, Beauchemin-Pinard prevailed over Manon Deketer of France thanks to a waza-ari she scored just over a minute into the bout.
“It was a great return to competition. I’m very happy with my day. I didn’t necessarily come here to win. I just wanted to get back into competition mode and fight as many bouts as possible. But in the end, I got the gold!” explained Beauchemin-Pinard.
“I scored pretty early in the final, and then things continued to go well after that. When you score early, it can make for a pretty difficult match, because you don’t want to lose your lead, but you also don’t want to play it too defensively. It becomes a mental battle, which is extremely exhausting. I was very tired after the match,” she added.
On her way to the final showdown, the Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist defeated Ozlem Yildiz of Turkey, Cindy Mera of Colombia, Viktoria Folger of Germany, and Clarisse Agbegnenou of France in back-to-back bouts.
“Yesterday, I reviewed some videos to prepare myself for my first two matches, and then today, I stuck to my game plan, and everything went well. The semi-final was probably my toughest bout. I didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself, but I also wanted to go hard. Once again, it turned out well.”
Today’s medal was the Québécoise’s sixth gold medal at a Grand Slam. She achieved the same feat at the 2024 event in Tbilisi.
“It’s satisfying for me to know that I can still compete at this level. After the Olympics, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue, and so when I started training again, I had a lot of apprehension. I wondered if I still had the drive to win. But a lot of those questions were answered for me today,” concluded Beauchemin-Pinard.
Also on Saturday, Jessica Klimkait took part in her second competition in the under-63 kg weight class. The Ontarian lost to Brazil’s Nauana Silva in the first round when she received a third shido after more than three minutes of overtime.
On the men’s side, François Gauthier-Drapeau fought his way to one of the bronze medal finals in the under-81 kg category, where he ultimately bowed out to Irakli Beroshvili of Georgia in overtime. The 27-year-old judoka won his first two bouts of the day, but lost to Petru Pelivan of Moldova in the quarter-finals. He came back strong in the repechage, however, defeating France’s Alpha Oumar Djalo by submission in overtime.
In the same weight division, Arthur Margelidon defeated Luan Almeida of Brazil before bowing out to Arnaud Aregba of France in the next round.
The Tbilisi Grand Slam will conclude on Sunday. Kyle Reyes (-100 kg) will be the only Canadian in action.
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For more information:
Patrick Esparbès
Chief Operating Officer
Judo Canada
(514) 668-6279
p.esparbes@judocanada.org