APPLICABLE RESEARCH IN JUDO 7 WHAT IS JUDO? WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO SAY NOWADAYS? Yves Cadot University of Toulouse - Jean Jaurès (France) INTRODUCTION In 2017, the European Judo Union (EJU) makes its slogan of „Judo - more than a sport!”. If, today, in 2019, this sentence has disappeared, the expression is stll regularly repeated in the speeches, and we can queston its rel- evance, on the coherence between acts and speeches, as on the historical veracity of this afrmaton. METHODS The method consists in confrontng Kanô Jigorô’s writngs with discourses as current practces, questoning both history and context. JUDO, A SPORT „Judo - more than sport!” Faced with such an asserton, we must then be interested in the terms of the state- ment and ask frst what a sport is, and then, if judo falls into this category, and if, fnally, this defniton contains it entrely. Although there may be nuances of interpretaton in the diferent languages, since the slogan of the EJU was in English, and we are expressing ourselves in this paper in this language, we have to ask ourselves what is the defniton of „sport” in english: • a game, competton, or actvity needing physical efort and skill that is played or done according to rules, for enjoyment and/or as a job • all types of physical actvity that people do to keep healthy or for enjoyment 1 We could multply the examples in various dictonaries, the defnitons would be similar and how not to recognize judo reading them? So, clearly, „Judo, a sport”. ANY SPORT IS MORE THAN SPORT What can diferentate judo from other sport(s)? Judo has values? Gymnastcs or rugby too (and, in French, for example, to own values comes within the defniton of „sport”). Judo is conscientously fulflling a citzenship mis- sion? Is there even a sport’s federaton that does not claim this? Judo is a way / philosophy of life? Surfng is, too. Since it was the EJU slogan, we could expect to fnd on its site a development, a demonstraton of what judo is more than sport, but, unless I’m mistaken, on that date 2 , nothing. On the other hand, there is a secton enttled „Judo. The art of living” 3 , which features an eponymous documentary which, we are promised, „will be another proof of Judo being more than sport!” Now, it is the juxtapositon of moving stories of people who have (re) built themselves through judo. Any sport could do the same. In fact, all physical actvity, as long as it goes beyond the simple framework of the game, of the strict competton, is, potentally, „more than sport”. This is the case of judo and, fnally, if we limit ourselves to the English defniton, 1 Defniton of „sport”: Cambridge Dictonay. (May 209). Retrieved from htps://dictonary.cambridge.org/dictonary/eng- lish/sport 2 Website accessed from March 2017 to May 2019. 3 Documentary: Judo ... The Art of Living (May 2019). Retrieved from htp://www.eju.net/judo--the-art-of-living-4258?lan- guage=en