Maria's Story
Maria Pekli won a bronze medal in the women's judo 57 kilograms category at Sydney 2000. It was Australia's first judo medal since Theodore (Ted) Boronovskis's bronze at Tokyo 1964. Until her retirement after Beijing 2008, Pekli had competed in Olympic women's judo since its introduction at Barcelona 1992. She represented Hungary in 1992 and Atlanta 1996 and Australia in Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. At Beijing, she made the semi-finals and just couldn’t capture a medal from her younger opponents, placing fifth and then subsequently retiring. In Beijing, Pekli was one of two female judokas to have competed at every Olympic women’s judo tournament. Pekli’s partner is triple Olympian Daniel Kelly.
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