Hungary returns to the IJF World Tour calendar after four years away, with the Budapest Grand Slam. The number of participants is huge, with 530 judokas from 72 nations registered (322 men and 208 women).
As the host nation, Hungary can field up to four players per category. It has registered 38 judokas. The biggest weight category is the -73kg class which has 64 entries.
Budapest is no stranger to the IJF World Tour. It has staged Grand Prixs from 2014 to 2019 and Grand Slams in 2020 and 2022. There was no tournament in 2017 and 2021 because the city hosted the World Championships in both of those years.
Hungary has a long tradition of judo excellence. Antal Kovacs was its finest champion, with an Olympic gold in 1992 and a World title in 1993. To date, Kovacs is Hungary’s only Olympic champion but there have been three Olympic silver medalists: Jozsef Csak in 1992, Bertalan Hajtos, also in 1992, and Miklos Ungvari in 2012.
Besides Kovacs, there is another player who has won a World title. Akos Braun won his World gold in 2005. Hungary also has three World silver medals, from Tamas Bujko in 1983, Kovacs in 2001, and Krisztian Toth in 2014. (Toth is now the president of the Hungarian Judo Association).
Budapest also happens to be where the headquarters of the International Judo Federation is located.
Home favorite
Reka Pupp, 30, is the one most likely to give the home crowd something to cheer about. The last time a Grand Slam was held in Budapest in 2022, Pupp won the -52kg gold. Although there has been a four-year gap, technically, she is the defending champion in this category.
Pupp is currently ranked 10th in the world and is seeded third in her category.
She topped the IJF world ranking at -52kg in 2022 and again in 2023. Pupp has three Grand Slam titles to her name (Baku in 2021, Antalya in 2022 and Budapest in 2022).
Recent events she medaled in are 2026 Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam (bronze), 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Slam (silver) and 2025 Zagreb Grand Prix (silver).
(Background facts and figures provided by JudoInside).
