Stevens Narrowly Misses Olympic Judo Medal

An Olympic athlete with a connection to Wakefield was unable to win a judo medal in Tuesday’s competition at the London games.

Earlier this week, a profile piece on WHDH.com noted that Travis Stevens, 26, trains at in Wakefield. The report noted that Stevens, a native of Tacoma, Washington, placed ninth at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and considers judo to be the most physical of all martial arts.  He also told WHDH that the training he has received at other nationally known judo centers is “a joke” compared to his training at Pedro’s.

For his part, Pedro himself is a four-time Olympian  and 1999 world champion who won bronze for judo in 1996 and 2004.

On Tuesday in London, Stevens, a half middleweight (73-81 kg), lost the bronze medal B match to Antoine Valois-Fortier of Canada. On his way to that match, Stevens defeated Aljaz Sedej of Slovenia in the round of 32, Avtandil Tchrikishvili of the Republic of Georgia in the Round of 16, and Leandro Guilheiro of Brazil in the quarterfinal. During the Olympic competition, Stevens also lost a semifinal match to Ole Bischof of Germany, who went on to win the silver medal for this weight class. The gold medalist was Jae-Bum Kim of Korea.