The continental governing body hosted a Gala Dinner in Croatia's capital Zagreb to celebrate judo's Olympic debut at Tokyo 1964, where Dutchman Anton Geesink won gold to become the first European judoka to break Japan's domination of the sport.

"It was so special when Anton Geesink won the gold medal in Tokyo," Hickey, Honorary President of the EJU and head European Olympic Committees, said.

"Up to that point the Japanese thought they were invincible and nobody could beat them.

"This triumph was a great achievement and it will be always in my memory."

Hickey, a member of the IOC ruling Executive Board, reassured the sport that it can look forward to many more Olympic Games as he revealed there is "a big lobby protecting judo" internally within the IOC.

"Together with the IJF (International Judo Federation) President Marius Vizer, I have worked with him to make sure that judo would never ever be in danger," he added.

"But it is a continuous process to ensure that at the Olympic Games judo remains one of the most popular sports.

"This is best achieved by very big audiences and the record of wide medal distribution all around the world."

A number of Olympic medallists received special awards to recognise their contribution to the EJU ©EJU


Vizer claimed that the world governing body is continuing to work on improving judo's standards still further and spoke of his hopes to see the sport jump from an third category Olympic discipline to the second one.

He also reiterated the desire to have a team event included on the Olympic programme at Tokyo 2020. 

Meanwhile, the 50th anniversary celebrations saw Vizer, EJU President Sergey Soloveychik and Croatian Olympic Committee President Zlatko Mateša present a number of special awards to Olympic medallists to recognise their contribution to the EJU.

Among the winners were German Athens 2004 bronze medallist Annett Böhm, Portuguese Sydney 2000 bronze medallist Nuno Delgado, Los Angeles 1984 bronze medallist and British Judo Association chairman Kerrith Brown, Italy's Moscow 1980 gold medallist and Los Angeles 1984 silver medal winner Ezio Gamba, Seoul 1988 bronze medallist Ben Spijkers of The Netherlands and Latvia's Sydney 2000 bronze medallist Vsevolods Zeļonijs.

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