Christella Garcia Wins Second Paralympic Bronze Medal
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by Bill Kellick
PARIS, France – Christella Garcia (Sacramento, Calif. / Team Sacramento Judo) became a two-time Paralympic bronze medalist on Saturday. Eight years after capturing her first bronze medal at the Rio 2016 Games, the 45-year-old Garcia added a second piece of bronze-hued hardware to her collection at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games judo competition. The podium finish came two days after her U.S. teammate Liana Mutia (Philadelphia, Pa. / El Idrissi Judo Academy) won the silver medal in the women’s 57kg competition and completed a two-for-two performance for USA Judo at the Paris Games.
“Today I woke up and I was extremely nervous, excited and just ready to get the day started,” said Garcia. “I definitely had some big emotions going into the first match.”
In her opening quarterfinal match in the women’s J1 +70kg division, the fourth-seeded Garcia defeated seventh-seeded Roma Siska Tampubolon of Indonesia with an uchi-mata throw for ippon (instant win) one minute and 21 seconds into the contest.
“I’ve been working on a lot of things with the coaches, especially this week so I tried to use that to my advantage and it worked out,” Garcia said of her quarterfinal win.
The victory advanced the Sacramento native to the semifinal round where she faced top seed and 2022 world champion Anastasiia Harnyk of Ukraine. Harnyk, the eventual gold medalist, took control of the match early, throwing Garcia for a waza-ari (half-point) just seven seconds into the contest and then scored the deciding waza-ari 38 seconds later to close out the match.
“Unfortunately during the match against Ukraine I didn’t follow the plan and got the results from that,” Garcia admitted.
In her bronze medal contest, Garcia executed the winning ippon just over two minutes into the match against Azerbaijan’s Khatira Ismiyeva to secure her place on the podium.
“This bronze medal match…I wanted this,” gushed Garcia. “I was so excited. I was match number eight which is my favorite number. The energy in the crowd was great. I’ve fought this opponent before and I just had to follow the plan and, coincidentally, this is the first tournament I’ve won doing tachi waza (standing technique). The big thing they (coaches) talked about with me was controlling the grips, me setting the pace, me not letting her have an inch, and I tried to do that. I want to give credit to her. She is a tremendous fighter, she is strong, but I just wanted it more.”
The reality of being a double Paralympic bronze medalist was still fresh to Garcia immediately after her final match.
“I know I like things to match, so that’s kind of cool. I don’t want to wake up and think that this is another visualization, so I don’t think it’s real yet.”
Garcia’s medal is the 24th Paralympic Games medal captured by the U.S. since 1988 with the tally now being two gold medals, eight silver medals and 14 bronze medals.
Brazil’s Erika Zoaga took the silver medal in the women’s J1 +70kg division while Turkey’s Nazan Akin Gunes claimed the other bronze medal.
