Judo fighter banned for life after vicious post-match attack sent gay opponent to the hospital
Akaki Japaridze, the athlete who put gay Olympian Timo Cavelius in the hospital, has received a lifetime ban. That's just the beginning.
Mark
Judo fighter Akaki Japaridze from Georgia has been banned for life by the German Judo Bundesliga, after he put his opponent, Olympian Timo Cavelius, in the hospital with a broken jaw in a vicious post-match league attack.
The repercussions of his vicious assault on Cavelius have only begun for Japaridze. He faces proceedings with both his country’s judo governing body, as well as International Judo Federation.
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Gay Olympian Timo Cavelius tells Outsports he won’t speculate on why a judo opponent attacked him, leaving him with serious injuries.
Yet his biggest headache may be the criminal investigation now ongoing in Germany.
Athletes in combat sports agree to face bodily harm — when it happens within the rules — when they step onto a mat or in a ring against an opponent. The attack by Japaridze against Cavelius went so far beyond any of that, he may now end up incarcerated.
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“Anyone who steps onto the mat entrusts their physical well-being to their opponent,” Miryam Roper, DJB Board Member for High-Performance Sport, said in a statement after the attack.
“This trust is the foundation of our sport. This act has not only severely injured Timo; it affects every single one of us involved in judo.”
At the Paris Games in 2024, Cavelius became the first-ever publicly out gay man to compete in judo at the Summer Olympics.
As reported previously, Cavelius now may face an uphill battle to earn a spot at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, as he will miss opportunities to qualify while he is recovering from the attack.
Akaki Japaridze defended his vicious assault on Timo Cavelius
Adding insult to injury, Akaki Japaridze defended his assault against Cavelius as defending his honor due to Cavelius celebrating the victory in the match by pointing to his teammates.
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Japaridze, video shows, was in the general direction of Cavelius’ point, sitting near the front of his teammates, and directly to the side of one teammate, on the side of the mat.
“A relativization or even defense of this serious bodily injury is unacceptable to us and incompatible with the basic principles of our sport,” the DJB said in response to Japaridze’s claim of defending his honor by hospitalizing the man who just beat him on the mat.
It is not known if or how Cavelius being gay contributed to the attack by Japaridze.
You can see video of the attack here:
Everyone at Outsports wishes Timo Cavelius a quick and complete recovery.
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