Leiva beat Mahammad Mamishov of Azerbaijan to clinch an under-50 kilograms bronze medal.

The United States has had Olympic judo medallists such as Travis Stevens, Kayla Harrison and Marti Malloy in the past, but USA Judo director of athlete performance Eddie Liddie pointed out that a small budget is a challenge as it builds towards the home Olympics.  

However, Liddie is confident of bagging podium places in Los Angeles.

"We still don’t have a big budget, and so more and more are coming to Europe on their own dime until they can make it into the funded group," Liddie said.

"It shows their dedication.

"They have to be in the top four at the USA nationals to make it onto the 'elite roster'.

"Those national medals are the starting point.

"We then put out opportunities to train and opportunities to compete and the top athletes can be funded while the rest on the elite programme can self-fund.

"This current group will go anywhere to train hard.

"They imitate the top players internationally.

"They see how hard they fight and how competitive you must be all the way to the end of a day, of a match. David replicated that spirit perfectly in Sarajevo."

USA Judo has credited the coaching and training camps in Valencia, "a second home", and athletes willing to take online classes regularly as international participation has increased over the years.

Liddie, who won bronze in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, also heaped praise on the successful training camp last year that saw 120 national team members across age categories training together.

"The national training camp in December was our biggest ever," Liddie said.

"We tend to gather the whole national team in Dallas, Texas as the travel can be cheaper than in other places and they have a really great dojo facility at the Eastside Dojo.

"With the distances involved we can’t bring the whole team together so often but it’s getting better and better when we do."