Q&A: Jimmy Pedro

Jimmy Pedro, a 1994 Brown graduate, is a two-time Olympic medalist in Judo and is in Rio as the Judo head coach of Team USA for his second game. Pedro led Kayla Harrison to her second straight gold medal in the 78kg weight class. Harrison defeated second-ranked Audrey Tcheumeo of France in the gold medal bout. Pedro caught up with #IviesinRio to look at back at his Olympic experiences.

What was your most memorable win on route to your medal winning performances?

My most memorable win was winning gold at the World Championship in 1999. I’m one of two Americans to have ever won the World Championship, so that’s special.

Barcelona for me was an amazing experience because I got to compete alongside some of my childhood heroes like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson who were all on the Dream Team. I was part of America’s Olympic Team, which was the premier team in the world. But as an athlete, I won two matches and lost my third and I was eliminated from competition so it was very disappointing.

My second Olympics Games, which was in our country in Atlanta, that was the highlight of my career when I finally stepped up on the Olympic podium and realized my dream of becoming an Olympic medalist. To do it in your own country was the most important time I could have ever done it. It was absolutely awesome and amazing to win it in America. So many of my family, friends from childhood, classmates from Brown, people who helped me get to this point, my fathers’ former students were in the crowd.

Everybody was chanting “USA USA USA” when I was fighting, so it was definitely the most memorable of all the Olympic Games for sure.

In Sydney, I was the favorite to win Gold for American, first ever. I really overtrained for that Olympics and I was flat on the day of competition and I ended up finishing fifth place. It was a very low point in my life and a terrible experience in my life having gone from Olympic medalist to nothing and it wasn’t how I wanted to end my career, so I decided to make a comeback for the 2004 Athens Games.

At 34 years old, kind of past your prime in Judo and not really good odds to medal in the sport, but it was an amazing and incredible end to my long career which was to finish my competitive days as an Olympic medalist. To date, I’m the only two-time medalist in the sport of judo.

Describe the excitement of a return trip to the Olympics for you?

Returning to the Olympics is awesome. I’m super excited about the team we have that will be competing in Rio. We have a very experienced US Team. We have three athletes that are seeded in the top eight. One of them being Kayla Harrison, who is ranked number one in the world. We have Marty Molloy who will be the number three seed at the Olympics and is a returning bronze medalist from London. And Travis Stevens who is seeded number five in the world. So, we have a legitimate shot at potentially winning three gold medals this Olympics. Will it happen? Probably odds are against us, but I like our chances going in. They’re very experienced seasoned athletes. They’ve been there before. They know they’re capable. We’ve had a great four years heading into this Games with a lot of success at the highest level. I’m excited about leading this team because they’re all like family to me.

Judo is still very niche compared to its popularity globally. What does Judo need to do in the U.S. to increase its presence?

I think somehow we need to make it part of the school system in the United States. In all of the successfully countries in the world in Judo, the sport is part of the physical education curriculum. It’s in the school system. Unless we can make judo a high school sport or a college sport, then it’s never really going to go because there are too many other options.

How do you feel your experiences at Brown and in the Ivy League helped prepare you for your career?

Brown was a phenomenal educational experience. I was surrounded by very bright and open-minded people and to me, the people that attend Brown are really caring of others. It’s not a cut throat environment, it’s not a highly competitive environment where everyone is trying to outdo each other. It’s a very strong community of people who want to see others succeed.

Because Brown promotes such an open-minded educational experience with people from all walks of life, you learn to appreciate other people’s points of views and take them into consideration before making a decision. In my coaching, I have athletes that are all vastly different, from different parts of the country, they all have different ways in which I can reach them, so I’ve learned to treat my athletes a little differently to try to find an effective way to reach them to maximize their potential

What was it like for you as a coach to watch Kayla Harrison win Gold in London?

Electric. It was a dream come true. For my entire life, I’ve visualized winning a gold medal in the Olympics for myself. When that dream did not become realize, and when it did happen for Kayla I realized my purpose in life was much bigger than myself. it was to help her. I think everything came to together for a reason. There was a reason that girl got dropped off on my door step. There was a reason my father and I were able to remold, rebuild that person from suicidal thoughts to an Olympic champion. We transformed her to an incredibly amazing, powerful, confident athlete. Her story is bigger than anything I could have imagined for the sport of judo. It helped put judo on the United States Olympic Committee and world map.

I feel like it was destined to be. That was the reason she became the first American. I was so happy and satisfied that it was finally accomplished for American judo that someone finally did it. I was so honored to be a part of it. I got to play the most instrumental role that anyone could have played in that story as the coach.

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