Former judoka Ryoko Tani, who won medals at five consecutive Olympics, delivered a one-hour speech Tuesday in front of about 30 Paris Olympics-bound Japanese female judoka.
"To win at the Olympics, you need to stick with your judo to the end," she said in Tokyo. "You have the ability to be the top of the world. There's no doubt you'll be fine."
Between the 1992 and 2008 Olympics, Tani won two gold and two silver as well as one bronze in the 48-kilogram category.
One of the young judoka began to cry when she saw the charismatic Tani for the first time.
The 48-year-old Tani also shared her story of how she would start simulating her Olympic routine, from waking up to sleeping, about one month before the competition began.
Uta Abe, who will be bidding for her second straight gold at 52 kg in the French capital, said, "I want to take everything positively like her. It was truly an hour well spent."
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