Paris 2024: Paralympic judo champion Chris Skelley: “Everyone in my sport is my idol”
“It takes a lot of braveness to step on the mat and fight another person with a vision impairment,” says British Para judo champion Christopher Skelley 21 Aug 2024
For Paralympic champion Christopher Skelley, every athlete competing in Para judo is his idol. It does not matter if the athlete has won a medal or has competed at the Paralympic Games.
“I think everyone in the sport is my idol,” said Skelley, who won the men’s -100kg division at Tokyo 2020. “To go on the mat and to do judo, especially with a vision impairment, when you’re trying to fight another person, it takes a lot of guts and a lot of heart.”
“It takes a lot of braveness to step on that mat and fight another person when you have a vision impairment.”
Para judo, contested by athletes with vision impairment, has been part of the Paralympic programme since Seoul 1988. There will be up to 148 athletes competing at Paris 2024, which takes place from 28 August to 8 September.
Ready to make a big impact in Paris 🔜
— ParalympicsGB (@ParalympicsGB) July 22, 2024
Meet your Para judo squad!
Great to see gold medal winning Paralympian Chris Skelley praising his old East Yorkshire clubs ❤️@ChristopherSke2 @Kofi_Smiles pic.twitter.com/7Cp3g9US46
— BBC Humberside (@RadioHumberside) April 29, 2024
Para judo family
For Skelley, judo has always been part of his life. He was introduced to it when he was five years old, and he continued the sport even after his eyesight began to deteriorate at age 17.
“I think my journey was a bit by accident. I never knew there was judo (for) vision-impaired (athletes). I met the previous Paralympic coach, and he explained to me about this world, which I had never known of. And I never looked back.”
Skelley was eventually diagnosed with a rare condition called oculartanious albinism. He made his debut at Rio 2016, roughly five years after he received his diagnosis.
“There’s no set of manuals on living with a disability. I think there are so many disabilities out there with all ways of living with it. It’s up to you to find your way and how to live with it.”
“I was very lucky to have people on the team who helped me understand it, and I found my own ways to live through it. It’s still ongoing, though. You still learn to live with your disability, to find better ways of doing certain things.”
Skelley says the Para judo community is like a big family – and he even found his wife, Louise Hunt, a former wheelchair tennis player, through Para sport.
“It is very cliché, but Paralympic judo is like a big family. Although you want to rip each other’s heads off, as soon as the referee says ‘mate’ and you bow to each other, you’re just good friends. That’s what I love about it.
“Para sport changed my life massively. It changed my life for the best because I met the woman I love doing this, and to say that I’m a Paralympian and she’s a Paralympian, and we get to do something we love is amazing,” Skelley said.
Double Paralympic champion
At Paris 2024, Skelley will compete in the men’s over 90-kg J2 event, hoping to finish on the top of the podium. It will be a new weight category for Skelley, who won gold in the -100kg division in Tokyo three years ago.
Despite practising judo for many years, he had never considered competing at the Games until watching London 2012.
“I never planned to go to the Paralympic Games and then I went on a Paralympic inspiration programme, which the British Paralympic Association do for young athletes. Ever since going to London in 2012, it has given me that fire.
“It gave me that wanting to be a Paralympian. To go to Rio and Tokyo, it has been a huge honour to represent my country, my family, and my friends.”
Skelley lost to Yordani Fernandez Sastre in the bronze medal match at Rio 2016. But five years later, he beat Benjamin Goodrich of the USA in the gold medal match at the Nippon Budokan, known as the birthplace of judo.
🥇🥋“I broke down after that. And then I became really hungry and mentioned pork pies...”
— ParalympicsGB (@ParalympicsGB) January 5, 2024
What’s the first thing you think about when you become Paralympic champion? 🤔@ChristopherSke2 x @HanCockroft on the ParalympicsGB Podcast is out now!
🎙️https://t.co/642Ufd5eT4 pic.twitter.com/tmULxJ5U12
Three years later, he aspires to be a double Paralympic champion.
“I’m now in a new weight category so there’s a lot of adjustments and learning again, which gives you the fire because you have to learn a different way of movement,” he said.
And he also has high expectations for fellow British athletes competing in Paris.
“The Brits are here to take over. I’m just going to say that we’re going to try and do our best, and I’m going to try and do my best and become Paralympic champion again. I know my teammates will do that.
“I know the hard work that goes into what we do, so I know if we just keep doing what we are doing, it will come.”
Discover more about Para athletics and the sports in the Paris 2024 Paralympic sports programme
