Paris 2024: Liana Mutia Wins Paralympic Silver
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by Bill Kellick
PARIS, France – After losing her first match of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games three years ago, Liana Mutia (Philadelphia, Pa. / El Idrissi Judo Academy) returned to the Paralympic stage on Thursday in Paris, finishing the day on the podium with a silver medal around her neck for the women’s J1 57kg division.
In her opening match of the day, Mutia made quick work of her quarterfinal round opponent, throwing Argentina’s Paula Karina Gomez for an ippon (instant win) just seven seconds into the contest. Her semifinal match against Ukraine’s Anzhela Havrysiuk took much longer with the scoreless match coming down to the final seconds when Mutia scored a waza-ari (half-point) with just two ticks left on the clock to claim the victory and advance to the gold medal match.
Facing China’s Shi Yijie in the final, Mutia was thrown for a waza-ari in the first few seconds of the match. She regained her composure and attempted several unsuccessful throws before Shi scored the immediate victory with 2:13 remaining when she threw Mutia for ippon.
“I don’t really consider myself an athlete, I’m a software consultant,” Mutia said following the competition. “But if there is one thing I’m good at it’s being a smart fighter, even though I’m not typically an athletic fighter. And that worked pretty well up until the gold medal match.”
Gomez and Havrysiuk claimed the bronze medals meaning that all three fighters that Mutia faced today ended up on the podium.
“Liana has grown since Tokyo,” said U.S. Coach Ed Liddie. “She has continuously added to her game, which showed today. She was focused, she followed game plans and stayed positive the whole time. The last one didn’t go the way we wanted. We got caught very early, so it put us into a different mode. But at the end of the day, I can’t tell you how proud I am of her.”
The U.S. Judo Team is back in action on Saturday’s final day of competition with Christella Garcia (Sacramento, Calif. / Team Sacramento Judo) competing in the women's J1 +70kg division.
