On Nov. 14 at the 2025 Montreal Cadet Panamerican Cup, Senior Kevin Purevdoj climbed through the rounds of the tournament. Defeating opponents one after another. He competes against 24 of the world’s top 15-17-year-old judo athletes in the world for his weight class. Ultimately losing to Jasur Aliyev from Canada in the repechage (second chance round) for bronze. He placed 5th overall for the 73kg (160lb) weight class.
Senior Kevin Purevdoj aims to qualify for the Los Angles 2028 Olympics games for Judo (a Japanese martial art and combat sport, focusing on using an opponent’s brute force against them by throwing, pinning, and grappling).
Only 4 athletes qualified for the judo USA team for the 2024 Paris Olympics being: Maria Laborde, Angelica Delgado, Jack Yonezuka, and John Jayne. Puredoj joined Berkeley Genco Judo Club at a very young age and trains there to the present day.
“I’ve been doing Judo since I was four years old.” Kevin Purevdoj said. “I got into judo because of my brother, because he started when I was a little kid.”
Purevdoj started competing in Judo tournaments and kept winning or placing very high. He started developing aspirations for competing in the Olympics.
“I started thinking about it when I turned about 9 years old, at a very young age I started winning a lot of competitions.” Purevdoj said. “My motivations are that I started as a little kid and I want to make my family proud and it’s something to have a goal about.”
Training to make an Olympic team takes both years of training and placing highly in many competitions, both of which Purevdoj has proven to do. He would train Judo and weight lift on weekdays and weekends.
“In a week I train, on weekdays: Tuesdays, Wednesday, and on the weekends. On Mondays I just do a lot of weight lifting in the gym.” Purevdoj said. “On some days I run in the mornings before school and usually after school I would lift weights and go to practice.”
According to the International Judo Federation (IJF), International and Olympic matches in Judo are broken up into 7 weight classes for mens and womens. Men’s divisions are: 0-60 kg, 61-66 kg, 67-73 kg, 74-81 kg, 82-90 kg, 91-100 kg, and 101kg and up. Women’s divisions are: 0-48 kg, 49-52 kg, 53-57 kg, 58-63 kg, 64-70 kg, 71-78 kg, and 79kg and up.
“The weight cutting,” Purevdorj said. “and just trying to cut weight has been kinda difficult.”
Competitions and tournaments vary from both national to international. Purevdorj has traveled all over the world to compete.
“I’ve travelled to France,” Purevdorj said. “I just competed in Canada two weeks ago, I traveled to Korea, as well as Mexico, and Dominican Republic.”
The IJF set qualification and selection periods between 15 June, 2026 – 12 June, 2028 in preparation for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic games. The Olympic games allows a maximum of 372 athletes for Judo athletes for all countries wishing to compete, across different categories. If an athlete is in the top 17 in the world ranking list, they will automatically be given a spot for their country’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) in their respective weight class.
The Olympic games start on July 14. 2028.
