In the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Yeldos Smetov defeated Luka Mkheidze in the final and won the gold medal, becoming the first ever judoka from Kazakhstan to win a gold medal. [6][7]
Smetov also secured a gold and a bronze medal at the World Cup among youth in 2010 and 2011, respectively. He joined the adult national team in 2012 and won a bronze at the 2013 Asian Judo Championships in Bangkok, a silver at a Grand Prix stage in Samsun - a stage of the European Cup in Tbilisi, and gold at an open European Cup in Warsaw. His first coach was Akhmet Zhumagulov.[8]
^"Judo Results Book"(PDF). Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original(PDF) on 1 August 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2021.