Gemma Gibbons

Career Gibbons started training with the Metro Judo Club, and after training with UELSports at the University of East London, is now a member of the British Judo Performance Institute.

Gibbons won the BBC Radio London Young Sports Woman of the Year Award 2006. Shortly after graduating, she won bronze in the under-70 kg class at the 2009 World University Games.

Kate Howey, Performance Development Squad Coach for 2012 stated that Gibbons "is one of our best medal hopes for judo" in the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games. In 2012 and ranked 42nd in the world at the time, at the 2012 London Olympics Gibbons won the silver medal, losing to Kayla Harrison in the -78 kg event. Television coverage of the Olympics showed footage of a teary-eyed Gibbons looking upwards and mouthing "I love you mum" after winning her semifinal match, thus guaranteeing a medal. Gibbons had lost her mother to leukaemia years earlier. The moment became an iconic image of the Games, featuring by the media in several compilations and montages connected with the event.

Achievements