An Ba-ul rose to prominence by becoming South Korea's first half-lightweight champion in more than a decade.
36 Facts About An Ba-ul
1.
2.
An Ba-ul is known for his tactical style of fighting and versatile seoi nage.
3.
An Ba-ul won his first four fights to book a final against future senior World Champion Naohisa Takato.
4.
An Ba-ul lost in his first fight against Taiwan's Tsai Ming Yen by ippon.
5.
An Ba-ul was anticipated to becoming the tournament winner as the defending champion, and looked to be on form, defeating Colombia's Andres Chapparo in his first fight by ippon with kata-gatame.
6.
An Ba-ul scored again, this time a yuko, with a seoi nage to kouchi gari combination.
7.
An Ba-ul scored a yuko with one of his favourite ashi waza, kouchi gari.
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An Ba-ul then scored a waza-ari with a drop seoi nage, winning the fight and sending him to the final.
9.
An Ba-ul faced high-level opponents, including two world champions and a double world runners-up.
10.
An Ba-ul scored an ippon with a drop sode tsurikomi goshi in less than fifty seconds, making the fight his shortest win.
11.
An Ba-ul won with a waza-ari using Korea's signature drop seoi nage with just three seconds on the clock.
12.
An Ba-ul faced Tajikistan's Umed Abdurakhimov in his first fight, and scored a yuko in the opening seconds with a drop seoi nage.
13.
An Ba-ul was coached by head coach Song Dae-nam for the tournament instead of the national extra and half-lightweight coach Choi Min-ho.
14.
An Ba-ul faced Taipei's Chien Chia-Hung in his first fight, and scored a waza-ari, however won by ippon, as Chien was awarded a fourth shido for hansoku make.
15.
An Ba-ul then fought against Japan's Sho Tateyama in the next round, and neither could score.
16.
An Ba-ul again scored waza-ari with a drop single sleeve morote seoi nage for awasete ippon with 30 seconds to spare.
17.
An Ba-ul attempted to use shime waza on Shershan in the dying seconds for ippon, but ran out of time.
18.
An Ba-ul fought Brazil's Gabriel Pinheiro in his first bout and the Brazilian was able to hold him off for more than half the fight.
19.
An Ba-ul defeated the Russian by ippon this time, using a drop seoi nage for waza-ari, and then a tate-shiho-gatame for another waza-ari in the final minute.
20.
An Ba-ul surprisingly struggled in his second fight against another of his former opponents, local Tateyama.
21.
An Ba-ul contested against Kazhakstan's Gabit Yessimbetov in the Round of 16, with both of them earning shidos for refusing to take a grip in the opening minute.
22.
An Ba-ul's next fight would end his vie for gold, against long-time rival Ebinuma.
23.
An Ba-ul lost to Ebinuma for the third time, the second time by ippon, as Ebinuma threw him with uchi mata.
24.
An Ba-ul faced Uriarte in the first round, and again couldn't attack successfully as the bout remained scoreless.
25.
An Ba-ul went against Israel's Baruch Shmailov, and took the lead with a yuko using his signature skill seoi nage.
26.
An Ba-ul ended the bout with an ippon using kouchi gari, sending him to the quarter-final.
27.
An Ba-ul brought the bout to newaza, pinning Seidl in yoko-shiho-gatame for yuko before the latter trapped his leg.
28.
An Ba-ul defeated his opponent in the final with sankaku jime for ippon.
29.
An Ba-ul faced Algeria's Houd Zourdani in his first fight, and won by ippon as Zourdani was disqualified for earning four shidos for passivity.
30.
An Ba-ul again fought Pollack in the quarter-final, but showed his superiority when he landed the latter on his back for ippon with his strong seoi nage in less than 20 seconds.
31.
An Ba-ul threw Oleinic with a drop morote seoi nage for yuko, and the no other throws were scored, sending him to the final.
32.
An Ba-ul was hailed by Korean media as one of the two predicted golds from judo at the Rio.
33.
An Ba-ul won by waza-ari through seoi nage, and sealed the win awasete ippon with a juji-gatame.
34.
An Ba-ul continued his ippon streak in the third round with another waza-ari with seoi nage, and then landed his opponent from France, Kilian LeBlouch, with sode-tsurikomi-goshi flat on his back.
35.
An Ba-ul's fight against long-time rival Masashi Ebinuma of Japan was reminiscent of the Japanese bout at the 2012 Olympics against An's countryman and coaching staff Cho Jun-ho.
36.
An Ba-ul is noted for his seoi nage, being trained by technician and World and Olympic champion Choi Min-ho.