Montréal, July 29, 2014 – Based at the Montreal Shidokan Club for over 40 years, The Judo Canada National Training Center will be moving into the brand new Institut national du sport (INS) du Québec, which will be located in Montréal’s Olympic Park. The best Canadian judokas will be able to test out their new digs at the Center starting on August 4^th.

Judo will join a host of other sports currently supported by the INS-Québec, which include synchronized swimming, diving, water polo, swimming, fencing, gymnastics and short track speed skating.

The new complex will allow judokas to train on four combat surfaces, after previously having just two at their disposal.  Also made available will be weight rooms outfitted with state of the art machines. And like all the athletes from other sports who train at the INS, the judokas will have access to sport science specialists.

“The equipment and space itself will be of a much higher quality. There’s really nothing out there that you can compare it to. For our current sports framework, this is definitely a step in the right direction,” explained Nicolas Gill, who is the both the high performance director and head coach of the Canadian team. “There’s a real buzz going on amongst the athletes about their new training grounds.”

Despite the excitement for Judo Canada’s new facilities, the former two-time Olympic medalist knows its equally important to keep close ties with the athletes who are working hard to make the national team, judokas who were regular sparring partners at the Center’s previous location in Montreal’s Notre-Dame-de-Grâce district.

“My role is to make sure that we keep this relationship intact as well as working in conjunction with our provincial partners. The new training facility is an excellent asset. It is now up to us to make sure that the athletes use it to its fullest potential.”

The national team would like to sincerely thank the Shidokan Judo Club for its unwavering support over the last 40 years. With the aid of both the Club and M. Hiroshi Nakamura, Canadian judo would never have flourished to the extent that it has.

National judo team staff

Nicolas Gill, high performance director and head coach
Jeremy Lebris, adjoint national coach, women’s team
Sasha Mehmedovic, adjoint national coach, junior team
Janusz Pawloski, adjoint national coach, National Center
Marie-Hélène Chisholm, high performance manager
Marie-Claude Dion, chief therapist