Katharina Haecker

Katharina Haecker was born in Germany to an Australian father and a German mother. She was introduced to the sport of judo in Hamburg when she was six and throughout her youth won a number of junior titles.

After she finished high school she made the decision to stop competitive judo and take a year off to discover Australia. During her time visiting Australia she found the place felt like home instantly. Once Katharina was back in Germany she returned to judo and started training with current coach, and now partner, Alexander Luedeke.

Her return to Germany also saw her move up a weight division from -57kg to-63kg and, despite it taking a little while to adjust, she soon began to record strong results. She began fighting for Australia and got selected to represent the green and gold at the 2014 Oceania Championships, which she went on to win. After going down in the fight for bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, she defended her Oceania title in 2015 and again in 2016 to qualify for her debut Olympic Games.

At the Olympics, Katharina lined up against Laura Salles Lopez of Andorra in her opening fight and got the victory after just over a minute. She couldn’t match the result in her second contest, going down to Japan’s Miku Tashiro by ippon.

Katharina believes she was not born naturally talented at judo, but it is her love for the sport that has gotten her so far. All her success has been due to sheer hard work, that has rewarded her with a well-versed technical skillset. In regard to the mental pressures faced with judo it actually took Katharina a long time to find self-belief, but now she considers her mindset one of her strongest assets.

Over recent years Katharina took silver at the 2018 Agadir Grand Prix and a bronze medal at the 2018 Grand Prix in Tunis in 2018. The next year she went on to clinched silver at the 2019 Grand Prix in Marrakech.

In 2020 she won the Tel Aviv Grand Prix and she claimed silver at the 2021 Asia-Oceania Senior Championships.

Katharina returned to Olympic competition in Tokyo, five years after she made her Olympic debut in Rio. In the women’s -63 kg division, she won her initial bout against Israel’s Gili Sharir, but lost a close round of 16 match against Dutch competitor Juul Franssen.

Katharina made her second Commonwealth Games appearance in 2022 in Birmingham, where she won bronze in the under-63kg division. After a semi-final loss to England’s Gemma Howell, she scored a decisive victory over Lauren Semple of Jamaica to claim bronze.

Later that year she bagged a gold medal at the European Open in Prague. She also won gold at the Oceania Open in Perth in 2022 and silver in 2023, before picking up two bronze and two silver medals at Grand Slam events.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics, she was eliminated by Great Britain’s Lucy Renshall in the women’s 63kg round of 32.

Giving her all, Katharina took three penalties against the British athlete and lost with a golden score of 11-1.

Katharina said elite judo athletes who have come before her and paved the way are her main sources of inspiration.

“Judo is an individual sport, but you depend so much on your teammates to have good practices,” she said.

“There are so many ways to win a fight, so every style, every part is so different. I think that's the thing I love the most about it – you’re never finished learning.”