For Kosovo’s Judo Stars, Medals Must Wait

"Sometimes I think people just don't get it," said Driton Kuka, selector of Kosovo's national judo team, of which Krasniqi is a member.

"They don't know what it takes to slim down to less than 48kg of body weight and then go out and fight the next day."

"Her body structure, hormones, muscle mass, everything… we will have to endure one more year."

Kuka had been due to take five Kosovo judokas to Tokyo in July, among them national hero Majlinda Kelmendi, winner of the gold medal in the 52 kg category at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

With each country limited to fielding one competitor in each category, Krasniqi, 25, has had to bring her weight down to 48 kg and keep it down, which is no easy task.

So the postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic has come as a bitter pill personally for Krasniqi, and for Kosovo as a whole, which had hopes high of more glory in only its second Olympic outing. The Kosovo Olympic Committee, KOK, has been scrambling to contain the fallout, not least in terms of money.

Kosovo's judo city

Loriana Kuka, Majlinda Kelmendi, Driton Kuka, Distria Krasniqi and Nora Gjakova. Photo: Lulzim Fana

Kuka is a legend in Kosovo. A former judoka, Kuka was robbed of his Olympic dream in 1992 by the bloody collapse of federal Yugoslavia and never had the honour of representing Kosovo - which declared independence from Serbia in 2008 - internationally.

Instead, he built a dojo in his home in the western Kosovo city of Peja/Pec, close to the border with Montenegro, and became the driving force behind the emergence of a cluster of world-class judokas from the city.

All five on the team due to compete in Tokyo are from the same neighbourhood. They still train in Kuka's basement dojo, where...