Exclusive direct interview! Abe Uta and Abe Hifumi speak their true feelings: “We’ll get married after we win the next Olympics (laughs).
We caught up with the strongest siblings in the world of judo at their alma mater's victory celebration party!
The Los Angeles Olympics are already in my mind!
At the victory party for the Paris Olympics held at the Imperial Hotel Osaka’s “Peacock Room,” Abe Uta (24), who failed to achieve her dream of winning the Olympics again, declared emphatically, “I will not give up until I win.
I will not give up until I win.
Meanwhile, her brother Hifumi (27), who has won two consecutive championships, vowed in front of 480 people seated at 50 tables that he and his siblings will make it again at the Los Angeles Olympics four years from now.
I’m sure it will be a tough road again, but I hope we will reach the top as siblings and win the gold medal in the team competition, and then please make the celebration even grander,” said Kazumi.
After the closing ceremony, Kazumi summed up the year 2024 by saying, “There has never been a year in which I have been so frustrated and so happy. The poet continued, referring to the fact that his sobbing after a losing match made news both at home and abroad.
I myself have had a year in which I learned the importance of looking forward.”
The 27-year-old and 24-year-old siblings both have partners who are rumored to be in relationships, and they are at an age when it is not surprising for them to be thinking about their personal happiness. When asked about their plans for marriage, Kazumi continued, “Right now, we are only planning to get married in Los Angeles in four years.
When asked about his plans for marriage, Kazumi replied, “Right now, I’m only looking at Los Angeles in four years. （I’m only looking at L.A. in four years, and I’ll probably get married after I achieve that goal. We will probably be athletes until the day we die.
The poet also added, “As an athlete, I’m going to be an athlete again.
As an athlete and as an ordinary person, I feel happiness in my own way,……, but what I have to do is to grab happiness through judo.
The Abe siblings will continue to be the face of judo in Japan and the world of sports.
From the January 3, 10, and 17, 2025 issue of “FRIDAY
Photography and text by： Yuji Yanagawa (nonfiction writer)
