Ready to Rumble

Judo means "the gentle way" in Japanese, but there's nothing gentle about Kosei Inoue as he grapples with a teammate at an Olympic training camp near Nagano in Japan. The stuffy gymnasium reverberates with the drum roll of bodies slamming off the mats as Inoue, an Olympic gold medalist and three-time world champion, grips his sparring partner, a baby-faced giant considerably larger than the 100-kg Inoue. The pair crashes together, then ricochets in a flailing knot off the mats and out of bounds, nearly crushing a Time reporter with a total of more than 200 kg of judo fury. "It's pretty...

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