8 Aug 2024 09:40
Inside news
Kim Polling end top sports judo career
21 Jan 2025 17:30
IJF Emanuele Di Feliciantonio / International Judo Federation
Quadruple European Champion Kim Polling has announced to retire from her beloved sport judo. The double Olympian who won four Masters titles, five Grand Slams, five Grand Prix events, the World and European Junior title and World senior bronze won’t get funding in a Military Sports Group and will retire to focus on her family with her husband Andrea Regis and their daughter Aurora.
Polling won the bronze at the 2023 World team Champinoships with the Dutch team and in 2024 with the Italian team and she participated for Italy at the 2024 Olympic Games. The Italian team defeated the Dutch in the preliminaries and it was Polling who won the decisive contest. Mixed feelings, and also her farewell in judo is a difficult one after she has been on the International circuit for an incredible 15 years.
Polling: “It’s the end of an era for me. If I could, I would have continued to be an athlete forever. But every athlete knows that sooner or later their career will end, and for me it is no different. Since I was unable to enter in a Military Sports Group and at the same time my body is struggling, Andrea has a full calendar and Aurora is getting older, I decided that the time has come for my retirement from judo. I would have really liked to compete in more tournaments for Italy. Fortunately, in addition to the individual results in these competitions, I was able to contribute to the historic bronze medal at the Mixed Team World Championships and the Olympic “medaglia di legno” together with a very special group of judokas. I am grateful to the Italian team for how they included me in the group and for how they made sure that I can remember what have become my last competitions above all with beautiful memories.
Saying goodbye to something that has been my life for so many years is not easy. But looking back, I can definitely say that I have had a wonderful career, one that I can only be proud of. I have experienced and achieved more than I ever imagined, even though I may have had the talent to win more. But in the end I have always followed my heart and the result is that judo has given me more than any other medal could have ever done. How symbolic is it then that in the month in which my daughter took her first judo lesson and is starting her judo adventure, I am concluding mine?
I also have some news that makes me very happy: I have been hired as a teacher at NTC Erasmus Milaan. In this school I will teach Dutch language and culture to Dutch-speaking children. Thanks to this stimulating job, the Italian lessons and managing the e-commerce of Sikko Polling B.V., I am absolutely not afraid of getting bored.”
“I conclude with a statement I made in 2010: “In hindsight, the best decision my parents could have made was to give me my first judo lesson.” Dad and mom, thank you for everything.”
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