Heath Young


Heath Francis Young is an Australian judoka, who competed in the men's half-lightweight category. He held five Australian titles in his own division, picked up a total of thirteen medals in his career, including two golds from the Oceania Championships, and represented his nation Australia in the 66-kg class at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Throughout his sporting career, Young trained full-time for the senior team at Tiger-Do Judo Academy in his native Sydney, under his personal coach, father, and sensei Terry Young.
Young qualified for the Australian squad in the men's half-lightweight class at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, by topping the field of judoka and receiving a berth from the Oceania Championships in Noumea, New Caledonia. He opened his match with a more satisfying victory over Bolivia's Juan José Paz by points on waza-ari, before losing out in an earth-shattering ippon defeat with a stunning shoulder throw to Cuban judoka and eventual bronze medalist Yordanis Arencibia. In the repechage, Young gave himself a chance for an Olympic bronze medal, but crashed out in the first round of the draft, as Venezuela's Ludwig Ortíz tightly pinned him on the tatami with a kuzure kami shiho gatame at one minute and ten seconds.