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Forty-five at the time of writing, Karen Briggs has been World Judō Champion no less than four times. (She first won the title in 1982, aged eighteen, and successfully defended it at the 1984, 1986 and 1989 Judō World Championships.) She was twelve years old when she began practising judō, having previously been obsessed with becoming a professional footballer.

Known as ‘The Whippet’, Briggs would commonly ‘warm up’ for an intensive judō training session with a 6—to 8-mile run. The only thing that ever slowed her down were injuries—these included a broken leg (sustained while attempting to throw an opponent), and a right shoulder which was prone to popping out of its socket. Indeed, it was this troublesome shoulder that was responsible for finally ending Brigg’s career; in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Brigg’s much younger opponent—the Japanese female judoka Ryoko Tamura (who had, ironically, previously declared that she idolised Briggs)—deliberately targeted the damaged part, something which enabled her to secure victory.

Karen Briggs now runs a judō club for children in her native Hull, East Yorkshire. In August 2008, she revealed that she’d recently had a breast removed due to cancer, but with typical fighting spirit went on to state that the ‘…future looks good’.