Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

2 Jewish Brothers Have ‘Judo in Their Blood’ — and They’re Headed to Olympics

Nathan and Joshua Katz, two brothers from Australia now headed to the Olympics, are Jews with judo in their blood.

Nathan, who is 21, and Joshua, age 18, inherited their love for the Japanese martial art from their parents, both of whom were judo fighters, too.

Now they’ve made it to the Olympics.

The two young men qualified in June by remaining in the top 22 of the Olympic-adjusted world rankings in their respective weight divisions. The two will be Australia’s first set of brothers to compete in judo at the Olympics at the same time. And this truly is a family affair — the siblings’ mother, Kerrye, competed at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and their father, Robert, was a coach.

On top of that, Joshua will become the youngest Australian male Olympian judoka, as players are known, when he heads into battle at the Maracana Stadium for the opening ceremony on August 5.

“It’s something we’ve dreamed about since were little kids,” Joshua told 9news, an Australian news outlet.

Already a rising star in the junior ranks, Josh won four junior Oceania Championships between 2012 and 2015; he also won junior national championships in 2013 and 2014.

“It’s really amazing to be able to share the whole Olympic experience with my brother,” Joshua said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph. “We’ve been training partners since we were kids and we want each other to achieve everything the other one does.”

“With Mum competing in 1988 and Dad the Olympic coach they appreciate what goes on to make this happen. I think they are very excited for us because they’ve been through it all with us.”

Judo Jew: Nathan Katz, in white, throws an opponent in a judo match. Image by YouTube

In an interview with Huffington Post, Nathan said that he had garnered some life lessons from the combat sport. “Judo is always about respecting other people. You bow before you fight and shake hands and that sort of thing,” he said. “I’ve had some real wars with some of my best mates but I think leaving all that on the mat is a big factor.”

Remarkably, the two are not the only siblings from Australia headed to the Olympics — there are five other pairs.

Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.