Throwdown artist

South Osborne

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This article was published 20/03/2024 (755 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kieran Scanlon is throwing more than his weight around lately.

On March 9 and 10, Scanlon, a Grade 9 student at Churchill High School, won two gold medals at the Edmonton International Judo Tournament, the largest judo tournament in Canada. Scanlon, a 14-year-old orange belt, won gold in the U16 +73 kg novice and U18 -90 kg novice categories, fighting against older competition.

“I had a lot of fun. I always do at tournaments,” said Scanlon, who is 6’4 and 195 pounds. “Winning them makes it even better.”

Scanlon won all four matches he had during the tournament, with the U16 championship bout giving him the most trouble.

“I lost balance and fell,” he said. “When that happened, I realized that I may have just lost. I looked at the ref and he wasn’t calling it so I just kept going. I knew I had to pin him. I just rolled through, pinned him and just held it for the win.”

“He made one mistake, he was off-balance for the throw, and the guy got on top of him,” said Gary Sova, founder of Inner City Judo Club, which helps run the judo club at Churchill.

“But he was able to roll him right off and pin him for the gold medal. And this guy was two inches taller than him! I thought ‘Holy moly! He just rolled him right into a pin.’”

Scanlon only began practising judo last year, at the suggestion of Churchill teacher Dylan Rasmussen.

“I was new to the school last year,” Scanlon recalled. “He was just telling me about some of the things we had here, and judo was one of them. So I decided to check it out.”

A hockey player in his younger days, Scanlon stopped playing when team sports shut down during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Discovering that Churchill had a judo club was a new opportunity.

“I’ve always been a physical guy,” he said. “It’s nice to have something I can be physical with and use my strength and size. A lot of it is about respect, and I really like that in competitions I feel like I can be friends with anyone there. It’s a very friendly community. I do really enjoy that, too.”

“Kieran is not just turning into a great ambassador for the school, but for judo, as well,” Rasmussen said. “He’s respecting others, he’s got mental resilience and toughness and physical resilience and toughness, as well. We’re seeing all those good qualities. I’m very proud to be his coach.”

Currently, about 12 kids take part in judo at Churchill, with an increasing number interested in taking part in competitions lately.

“Now that we’ve had this group start competing, the other students are seeing that and are wanting to compete, too,” Rasmussen said.

“We’ve had an after-school program here for 12 years now,” Sova said. “It’s been great here. This year we seem to have more students interested in going to tournaments.”

Scanlon will continue training with both the Churchill club and Inner City, and hopes to begin practising with the provincial team soon, with a number of upcoming club tournaments to look forward to.

“I’m thinking I’ll do as much competition as I can,” he said. “I don’t think I have anything specific in mind. It’s so far just been practise and compete and see where it takes me, so I think I’ll stay with that for now.”