Daria Bilodid still finding her footing at U57kg

Some players successfully make the transition into a higher weight class, while others struggle to adapt. Former World Champion Giorgii Zantaraia (UKR), for example, managed to do well and win many medals after moving up a weight from U60kg to U66kg. Fellow former U60kg World Champion, Rishod Sobirov (UZB), in contrast, never quite managed to adapt to his new weight of U66kg but was still able to peak at Olympic Games.

Daria Bilodid (UKR), a double World Champion at U48kg, is still struggling to acclimatize to her new weight class of U57kg. Obviously she stepped up a unique two weight categories.

After the Tokyo Olympics, where she performed poorly despite being the favorite, Bilodid moved up two weight classes, which tells you how much she was dieting to cut weight for the U48kg division. That no doubt contributed to her poor showing in Tokyo, which left her in tears.

Her first competition after the Games was the 2021 European Championships where she lost in her second match. Bilodid also lost in her second match at the Tbilisi Grand Slam.

At the Tashkent World Championships, Bilodid won two fights to get into the quarterfinal, where she lost. Then, in the repechage, she lost again.

Her latest competition was the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam, where she once again lost in her second match. The way in which she lost was spectacular. Bilodid's opponent, an unknown China player, circled her around and launched her with a massive uchimata for ippon.

It's understandable, and can even be said to be predictable, that Bilodid would find her new weight class a challenge. For one thing, she jumped two weight classes.

In the U48kg division, she towered over everybody else however, in the U57kg division, Bilodid is finding that the players are much taller, bigger and stronger than she is used to. So, a period of readjustment is needed. Still we see her growing into the new category.