Raz Hershko

Hershko is from Netanya and began attending a judo club there at age four.[1][11] The club was run by her uncle, Shani Hershko, who became her personal coach and also served as Israel’s women’s national-team coach.[11] She initially disliked the classes and left to try other activities before returning; she recalled beginning to fall in love with judo around sixth grade.[11] After exploring several extracurricular activities, she concentrated on judo and basketball, choosing judo in seventh grade.[4] At 14, she won her first Israeli championship, a result that helped convince her that she had talent and wanted to pursue the sport.[4]

As a larger child, Hershko sometimes trained or competed with boys because there were no girls in her weight category.[4] She recalled crying before weigh-ins and being mocked about her weight at school and after social events.[4] She also described being socially excluded because of her appearance and participation in judo, while finding acceptance in the sport itself.[12] Her parents’ support helped her continue, and she found a more supportive environment after moving into the Wingate Institute dormitories in tenth grade.[4][12]

Hershko said she was diagnosed with ADHD in eleventh grade.[4] In a 2021 interview, she discussed periods of emotional distress and self-harm, explaining that work with a psychologist helped her develop tools to stop hurting herself.[4] She also spoke about coming out to her parents and feeling accepted by them.[4] Describing the place of sport in her life, she called judo “my anchor” and said, “I am most myself when I am on the mat.”[4]

Hershko’s first international competition was the 2013 European Cup Cadets in Zagreb, where she reached the semifinals.[4] In 2015, she won the European Under-18 Championship in Sofia after a year in which injuries had limited her competition schedule.[4] She described the title as a major breakthrough and as the first Israeli victory at that championship.[4] She subsequently reached the final of the European Youth Olympic Festival in Tbilisi, winning silver.[4]

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, held in 2021, Hershko competed in both the individual over-78-kilogram event and the mixed-team competition.[5] She defeated Saudi Arabia’s Tahani Al-Qahtani in her opening individual match before losing to Japan’s Akira Sone, the eventual gold medalist.[4] Her individual record was one win and one loss, taking her to the round of 16.[5] In the mixed-team event, she recorded two wins and two losses, including victories against Italian and Russian opponents, and helped Israel win bronze.[5] Her victory over Italy’s Alice Bellandi contributed to the team’s medal-winning campaign.[4]

Hershko won European championship silver in 2022 and again in 2023.[8] At the world championships preceding her 2023 breakthrough, she finished fifth after receiving a third penalty for adjusting her hair.[9] In the 2023 World Championships in Qatar, she defeated Zimbabwe’s Christy-Rose Pratious and then China’s Shin Su, the latter by ippon, before losing to Sone in the quarterfinal.[9] Victories over Turkey’s Kayra Sayit in the repechage and China’s Xu Shiyan in the bronze-medal contest secured her first individual world-championship medal.[9]

At a 2023 Grand Slam in Mongolia, Hershko won silver.[6] Later that year, she reached first place in the International Judo Federation’s overall ranking for senior women across all weight categories, becoming the first Israeli judoka to do so.[6]

At the 2024 European Championships in Zagreb, Hershko won her first senior European title in the over-78-kilogram division.[7] She defeated the Netherlands’ Karen Stevenson by ippon in the round of 16, won her quarterfinal with a waza-ari, and advanced past Turkey’s Kayra Ozdemir in the semifinal after Ozdemir accumulated three penalties.[7] In the final, she defeated France’s Julia Tolofua by ippon, improving on her silver medals at the two preceding editions.[7]

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Hershko advanced to the semifinal, where she defeated Ozdemir in 15 seconds.[2][3] She then lost the final to Brazil’s Beatriz Souza and won silver.[2][3] The medal was Israel’s third of the Paris Games at that point.[3]

After Paris, Hershko said she had wanted gold and felt she had come close, attributing the final’s turning point to a small mistake in her footwork and grip during a momentary lapse in concentration.[12] In August 2024, she described having returned with 20 medals from her previous 23 competitions.[12] She acknowledged expectations from both others and herself, explaining that she tried to put outside pressure aside and concentrate on what she wanted to achieve.[12]

At the 2025 Paris Grand Slam, Hershko won bronze in the over-78-kilogram category, while fellow Israeli judoka Timna Nelson Levy and Inbar Lanir won silver medals.[2] Later that year, she reached her fourth consecutive European championship final, losing to France’s Romane Dicko and taking silver.[13] She missed the 2025 World Championships in Budapest because Israel’s military operation against Iran prevented her from traveling to the event.[10]

In 2026, Hershko won gold at the Tbilisi Grand Slam in March and also won the Upper Austria Grand Prix.[2][14] She also missed the Tashkent Grand Slam after another military operation forced her to leave the city before the scheduled competition.[10] At the European Championships in Tbilisi, she defeated France’s Lea Fontaine by ippon in the final to secure her second European title.[8] The victory gave her a fifth consecutive European championship medal, following silver in 2022 and 2023, gold in 2024, and silver in 2025.[8]

In September 2026, Hershko won the Hungary Grand Slam in Budapest, defeating France’s Célia Cancan by ippon with an arai-goshi.[2] It was her seventh Grand Slam title overall and her second of the year, following Tbilisi.[2][14] She said the victory meant “a lot, especially mentally,” and welcomed the pressure ahead of the World Championships in Baku.[2]

At the 2026 World Championships in Baku, Hershko opened with an ippon victory over Taiwan’s Ling Fang Chang and then defeated Estonia’s Emma-Melis Aktas with a golden-score yuko.[10] In the quarterfinal, she beat Souza, reversing the outcome of their Paris Olympic final and ending a run of six defeats in their previous official encounters.[10] After losing to a South Korean opponent in the semifinal, she defeated Croatia’s Helena Vukovic in the bronze-medal contest.[10] The result was her third world-championship bronze overall and her second in individual competition.[10]

Hershko dedicated the Baku bronze to the memory of judoka and IDF officer Yonatan Goutin, who was killed in fighting at Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, 2023, and to his family.[1][15] She said she was proud to return to the podium with the Israeli flag and emphasized the work and meaning behind a world-championship medal.[15]

Hershko’s first-place overall women’s ranking in 2023 established an Israeli first beyond the standings of an individual weight category.[6] Her Olympic record includes both a contribution to Israel’s mixed-team bronze in Tokyo and an individual silver in Paris.[4][2] Between 2022 and 2026, she reached five consecutive European championship finals, winning two golds and three silvers.[8][13]

In discussing her achievements, Hershko has connected competitive success with overcoming difficulties away from the mat.[4] Her accounts of school bullying, emotional distress, parental support, and acceptance within judo describe the sport as both a competitive pursuit and a personal refuge.[4][12]

Hershko’s Tokyo match against Al-Qahtani took place amid speculation about whether the Saudi athlete would compete against an Israeli and backlash directed at Al-Qahtani beforehand.[4][16] The athletes shook hands after the match, and Hershko later described the encounter as historic.[12][16]

Hershko has said that politics and sport do not mix for her.[12] She has also described hearing boos at international competitions, saying that she tried to disregard them and focus on fighting and winning.[1]