Matthieu Bataille and Ioana Babiuc top the referee rankings

With 7 months to go for the Olympic Games in Paris, also the referees are lined up. The competition year has concluded, and not only have the athletes been judged, so have the referees.

The best referees in the world will prepare to oversee the most important contests in an athletes career, as well as their own. The European Judo Union are proud of the high standard of refereeing we have within the continent and the number of referees that are staples on the IJF World Tour.

Just as the athletes, referees have a ranking system and leading the EJU ranks for men is former athlete, European champion and world medallist, Matthieu Bataille (FRA), and for the women, another former athlete, Ioana Babiuc (ROU). Both Bataille and Babiuc have an 8.6 rating in the referee ranking. In the IJF ranking the top positions are for European referees in this moment whereas previously also Asian referees were ranked high.

French judo referee Matthieu Bataille was World bronze medallist in 2007, 2008 and in 2010. He was European Champion in 2004 (Open) and won bronze in 2005. He won 2 World Cups in Budapest. He became a referee after his career and officiated at the major events in the world including finals in the IJF World Tour. He officiated World Championships finals such as in 2023 in Doha.

Romanian judo referee Ioana Babiuc was a young talent in her country in the juniors. She became a successful IJF Referee and was elected as best referee in Europe in 2011 and 2012. She refereed at the main IJF events and Tokyo Paralympic Games and 2012 London Olympic Games. In Romania she is still a coach to bring new talents to the top. Ioana didn’t take up judo as a very young child as many do, but found her place on the tatami as a 12 year old following the passing of her father in 1987.