LEE CALDER, coach of TT’s first-ever Olympic-bound female judoka Gabriella Wood (+78kg), credited his student’s impeccable training and work ethic for her success thus far.
The Scottish judo coach has been at the helm of Wood’s development over the past four years and will join her at the Tokyo Games.
The duo, alongside Calder’s son and Wood’s training partner Cailin, leaves their Scotland-base on Monday, en route to Japan for a historic showing for both coach and athlete.
Not only is Wood the first female judoka to represent TT at the Summer Games, but also Calder’s debut as an Olympic coach.
“It’s a great achievement for Gabriella and a big opportunity for me as well. Gabriella is the first judoka to come from my dojo to go the Games.
“So it’s a first time for my dojo, first time for me and first time for Gabriella as well. But she has the right training and work ethic to achieve anything she wants. She has that right frame of mind,” said Calder.
Four years ago, Wood, a rising judoka, travelled to Scotland to visit family. At that time, she had some experience in the sport having battled to silver at the 2015 Pan American Junior Open (Argentina) and bronze at 2016 Junior PJC Cup (Dominican Republic) and US Junior Olympic International (Dallas, Texas).
In Scotland, she did a couple training sessions at the national training centre and was seen by the experienced Calder.
Soon after, she earned a partial sport scholarship at the University of Stirling for a Bachelor in sport studies. She then approached the 50-year old coach to join his club and further her craft.
“We had a discussion, she came along and we hit off. The bottom line is she became part of the family. We were lucky enough that two of my sons, I’ve got four children myself, are big guys who are also heavyweights and were good guys to help me train her. It just worked out for us,” he added.
Calder said when he first met the 23-year-old Wood, she was still quite young (aged 19) to competing but had a good fundamental understanding of judo and a strong foundation to build on.
Her coach, also a heavyweight fighter, never competed at any great level but took up coaching and really enjoyed it.
With her prior experience, Calder was able to place more emphasis on his athlete to improve some of her specific judo movements for a heavyweight rather than just doing lighter judo work at the time.
Movement, gripping techniques and strategising on what and how she needed to be executing her throws for fighting bigger girls were his main objectives.
“When we first started, it was always first and foremost to qualify for the Olympics. To represent TT was a massive sign for Gabriella. To finally achieve that, it’s like a fairy tale; a dream come true for her and for me.
“Every judo coach in the world would love to say they coached at the Olympics. To have the opportunity to go alongside TT, even though I’m not from there, it’s a massive honour.
“I’m so proud of how she is, trains, acts and she’s a fantastic athlete. She never misses a tr
