Abigail Smith will be going to the World Judo Cadets Championships in Bulgaria in August. (Rick Conrad)

Abigail Smith is booking another international flight to wear the maple leaf.

The 17-year-old judo athlete from Queens County will be representing Canada at the World Judo Cadets Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, Aug. 27 to 30.

There are three divisions in judo: cadet for athletes under 18, junior for those under 21, and senior.

“I’m so excited,” she told QCCR.

“It’s been my dream for so long. Years now, I’ve been wantitng to go to a world event, and cadet worlds, it’s what I’ve been working for. I moved to the city to be able to train for this goal, so to know that all my hard work paid off and I’m actually getting to go, it’s such a surreal feeling.”

Smith decided five months ago to move to Halifax and stay with a family there so she can train full time at Nova United Martial Arts.

“When I was living in Liverpool, I was only able to train three days a week on the mats because it’s such a long drive — two hours there, two hours back. I was getting home at 11, and not getting to bed until 12. This is my last year to make the cadet worlds, this is the last year I could qualify, so I said I really wanted to go for it and I talked to my coaches and my parents and everyone that’s been helping me, and they said, ‘Yep, let’s go for it’.”

• RELATED: Read more about Abigail Smith’s journey here

Smith began judo lessons when she was four years old. She’s now ranked in the Top 10 in Canada.

She’s been racking up the frequent flyer points in the past few months, joining Team Canada for the European Judo Tour in March. 

And she grabbed two bronze medals, in her usual U18 or cadet division and the U21 division, at the national judo championships in Calgary in May.

Like the fierce competitor she is, though, she was disappointed because she had her sights set on a gold in the U18 division.

“I was very upset with the results actually. To get selected for worlds, you have to win nationals. I didn’t win, but Judo Canada has the option to select another (athlete). They selected me to go also.

“I went there to win. My first fight was a good fight. And I went into my second fight, it went into golden score which is overtime and I was dominating the whole fight controlling it and a few seconds into overtime I made a mistake, I got caught and I lost that fight. Then I was very upset. Then my coach talked to me, my dad talked to me and they said you can still podium, so I fought back up to the repechage and I won the bronze medal after a few more fights.”

She’ll have a big cheering section in Bulgaria for the worlds. Her coaches Jason Scott and Jamie Slaunwhite plan to be there, along with her parents.

“It’s special, it means a lot to me, they’re my biggest supporters, my mom and dad, for them to come it’s going to be great for them to see me fight.”

Smith says she’s excited to show, again, what she can do on the world stage.

“I think i just want to go out there and fight and show my judo and leave everything on the mat. I don’t want to have any regrets after this. I just want to go out there and fight and give it my all.”

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Abigail Smith displays her gold medal at a PanAmerican judo meet in Montreal in November. (Abigail Smith photo)

Abigail Smith has already made a mark on the Canadian and world judo stage, and she’s not done yet.

The Grade 11 student at Liverpool Regional High School will be competing against judokas from other countries yet again as she prepares for a tour of Europe with Team Canada in March. 

Smith will be travelling to Spain, Portugal and Croatia for European Cup tournaments and training camps as part of the European Judo Tour.

“I travelled with Team Canada one time last year which was for an event in Germany, and I was so excited for it,” Smith told QCCR.

“And now I got selected to be on a tour which is an even bigger deal. I didn’t think that would happen for me this year at all. My main focus was nationals, but now I’m spending a month in Europe. It’s crazy to me, I didn’t think it was going to happen to me this year. It’s really exciting.”

She said she’s looking forward to the more intense competition of the European tournaments.

“The training for me is the most important thing. Getting to train with different bodies. In Canada, you know everyone you’re training with and you’re getting familiar with different fighting styles. So getting to go outside of Canada, and fighting round after round with people from all different countries, you’re getting so much experience from it, it’s going to make my judo way better. Tournaments in Europe are a lot different than tournaments in Canada, there’s a lot more aggression, there’s a lot more people who want to win. So I’m getting so much experience.”

Two of the tournaments are in the older U21 or junior age division, while the third is in her usual U18 or cadet class. But Smith is no stranger to punching above her age.

In November, she won a bronze medal in the older division at the Quebec Open and followed that up with another bronze in the same age class at the Pan American Canada Cup. And she snagged two gold medals at the same meets in her usual division.

The 17-year-old Brooklyn resident, who began judo lessons when she was four years old, is ranked in the Top 10 in her age division in Canada. 

Smith says juggling the travel, training and tournaments with school and a social life are worth it. They’re all part of building toward her ultimate goal, which is to compete at the World Judo Championships and at the Olympics.

“Because judo is my life. The thing I love the most is judo and everything that comes along with it.

“So for me, doing all those things, like sacrificing time with friends, I want to go to the Olympics, I want to be world champion, and I know the goals that I want and that I’ve dedicated so much time to, they’re not going to come true unless I keep with it. So I keep with it. Everyone in my life is so supportive. They know I need to train.

“My family, my friends, my community, everyone is so on board with what I do, it makes it 10 times easier.”

Smith trains with Nova United Martial Arts in Halifax four days a week. She says she takes notes at every competition and training camp she attends. And she works with her coach Jason Scott on how to improve.

For the next couple of months, she’ll be focused on getting ready for the European tour in March and a February meet in Denmark, where she also competed last year.

“I want to win of course because it’s my first European tour. My biggest goal is to go out there and fight, do my best. Show the European tour me, show them me. I want to learn so much. You’ll never learn everything about judo. So each time I go away, I’m learning so much.”

After she returns from Europe, she’ll be getting ready for the national judo championships in Calgary in May. If she wins there, she’ll be on Team Canada for the world championships in Bulgaria in August.

But she doesn’t want to think too far ahead. She’s just hoping to do her best wherever she goes.

“I hope everything goes well so I can bring back good results for everyone supporting me.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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Abigail Smith, 16, of Brooklyn, stands with her coach Jason Scott, displaying one of the two bronze medals she won at the Elite National Championships in Edmonton on Jan. 13 and 14. (Photo via Abigail Smith)

By Rick Conrad

Abigail Smith credits a lot of people for her success so far and so young in national and international judo meets. 

Her parents, her coaches, her teammates, her teachers. 

But what really gets her into a competitive frame of mind is some good ol’ country music. 

“A lot of people like to listen to pump-up music before a fight, but I like to listen to my country music to keep my calm and not thinking about judo before I do judo. That helps me to not think about what I have to do and then do it.”

So far, listening to the likes of Sam Barber and Luke Combs has helped keep the 16-year-old Brooklyn resident on the straight and narrow.

She won two bronze medals at a national judo meet in Edmonton last weekend, just before her 16th birthday. And in November, she captured silver and bronze at the Pan American Cup in Montreal, her first international competition. 

The medals at the Elite National Judo Championships in Edmonton were especially sweet, she says, because it featured the top judo athletes from across the country. 

“This is the biggest event in Canada. It’s a lot of work to get selected. So this year this was my favourite medal. Of course, I’m never happy with a bronze medal but this medal meant something to me so I was very happy with that. It means a lot.”

In Edmonton, she had her sights set on beating a rival judoka she hadn’t defeated yet. When they met in the U-18 division on Saturday, Smith lost to her. But on Sunday, in the senior division, Smith came back with a vengeance.

“She was my first fight and I had a very hard fight but I beat her, so winning that bronze medal meant a lot to me because I had been training specifically to beat that one person. So it was a big moment, we’d been working a while for that, me and my coach.”

Smith has been working at judo for 11 years. Based at Nova United Martial Arts in Halifax, she trains three to four days a week for up to two hours each session. That’s in addition to regular cardio and strength workouts. 

She said her father Troy Smith first got her interested in the sport.

“My first coach worked with my dad and my dad was like, ‘I have a crazy daughter at home that needs to get some energy out,’ and he brought me to judo with his co-workers.”

Smith, who is in Grade 10 at Liverpool Regional High School, hasn’t looked back. She is ranked in the Judo Canada Top 10 in the U-18 division. Sport Nova Scotia has chosen her to be one of 12 Nova Scotia True Sport Athlete Ambassadors for 2024. True Sport emphasizes fair, inclusive and safe play. 

She’ll be travelling to Denmark in early February to compete in the Danish Open.

And she just found out that she was selected to be part of Team Canada at the International Thuringia Cup Judo in Germany on March 23.

Competing nationally and internationally does cut into her school work, Smith says, but her teachers have been very supportive.

“I’m able to do what I’m doing, missing a lot of school because the teachers are very understanding and help me with my work to help me catch back up. So it’s nice to have teachers supporting me.”

She also credits the community support she’s received from the Region of Queens, Folk Law, Main and Mersey, Best Western Plus Liverpool and Sport Nova Scotia, as well as her coach Jason Scott and her teammates.

“People think judo is an individual sport and it is an individual sport, but it’s a huge team sport because you can’t get anywhere without your team, your training partners,” she says. “And having a good team you can rely on in sport and outside of sport is really important and that’s what’s helped me get so far in judo.”

She says she’s learned a lot of valuable lessons from the sport.

“That what you put in comes out. Whatever you want, it can happen. But you just have to put in that work and that extra effort and if you don’t, you’re not going to see the results you want, but if you do, then you’ll see results. And to be patient.”

With that frame of mind, she says she’s on track for her next big goal.

“I always say that I will be competing at Olympics and representing Canada at worlds one day so what I want to happen, I always say is going to happen. So hopefully, it will happen one day, Team Canada and the Olympics hopefully. We’re on track for that now.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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