Kuwait City, Kuwait, March 28, 2022: International Judo Federation referees supervisor, Udo Quellmalz, told participants at the Olympic Council of Asia’s special development programme for coaches and referees on Monday, March 28, that there was no “quick-fix” for success in the sport.
The 55-year-old German, an Olympic gold medallist and two-time world champion, informed 30 coaches and referees from 12 National Olympic Committees in West Asia that there was no shortcut to success but only hard work and dedication.
“If you are here to learn about a magic formula to winning, then I’m sorry to say that I cannot offer that recipe. From my experience, what is needed is hard work over a long period of time. Success doesn’t happen overnight,” Quellmalz revealed to participants in the second phase of the OCA development project.
Football, judo and gymnastics are the three sports in the second phase of the inaugural project run by the OCA for NOCs in the Arab world.
Quellmalz is running both the coaches and referees programme in judo as he has had all-round experience in all aspects of the sport.
“We are fortunate to get Udo as he is one of the foremost experts of judo in the world. He reached the top as an athlete, and also coached a number of countries at the Olympic Games, and today he is a top-class referee with the International Judo Federation,” said Tony Tarraf, OCA Head of Athletes Development Department and Special Projects.
Quellmalz competed in three Olympics starting with Seoul 1988. He won a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta gold medallist, and was also 1991 and
1995 World Champion. As a coach, he was performance director of the British team at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, and then with Austria during the 2008 and 2012 Games. He was at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as an IJF referees supervisor.
“I had more hair back then,” joked Quellmalz, as he made a brief presentation of his impressive credentials at the opening seminar on Monday.
“Judo is more than a sport, it is a way of life. True greatness is not about winning, but from how we treat others and express ourselves honestly and these are traits which you learn in judo,” said Quellmalz who began judo as a seven-year-old in Leipzig, in what was then East Germany.
Over the next two days, coaches and referees from Iraq to Saudi Arabia will have the benefit of mining useful information from Quellmalz.
“This is the goal of the Olympic Council of Asia, for coaches and referees to go back to their countries and transfer the knowledge they learned here,” noted Tarraf.
