Jane Bridge

This article is about the judoka. For the mathematical logician, see Jane Kister.

Jane Bridge

Personal information
Nationality	British (English)
Born	(1960-02-04) 4 February 1960 England
Died
Occupation	Judo coach
Sport
Country	Great Britain
Sport	Judo
Weight class	‍–‍48 kg
Rank	8th dan black belt
Achievements and titles
World Champ.	Gold (1980)
European Champ.	Gold (1976, 1978, 1980)
Medal record Women's judo Representing Great Britain World Championships Gold medal – first place 1980 New York -48 kg European Championships Gold medal – first place 1976 Vienna -48 kg Gold medal – first place 1978 Cologne -48 kg Gold medal – first place 1980 Udine -48 kg
Profile at external databases
IJF	{{#statements:P4559}}
JudoInside.com	{{#statements:P2767}}

Jane Bridge (born 4 February 1960) is a British retired judoka and judo coach.

Judo career

Bridge came to prominence winning the gold medal at the 1976 European Judo Championships in Vienna. The following year in 1977, she became champion of Great Britain for the second time, winning the bantamweight division at the British Judo Championships. She had first won the title in 1975.

In 1978, she won her second European Judo Championships gold medal, after winning the –‍48kg category at the women's 1978 European Championships in Cologne. In 1980, she won her third Eureopean Championship gold. The same year Bridge won a gold medal at the inaugural women's 1980 World Judo Championships in New York. She defeated Anna de Novellis in the final of the –‍48kg category.

In 1982, she won a third British Championship at bantamweight.

Coaching

From 1993 to 1997 she coached the British women's judo team and taught Performance Judo at the University of Bath. In 2016, Bridge began working with the European Judo Union as Vice President for Education. In 2022, she started working for the Swedish Judo Federation as sporting director. She also started coaching Tara Babulfath, who won bronze at the 2024 Summer Olympics in the Women's 48 kg weight class.

Other

After retiring from judo she lived in Paris and was once a bodyguard to Sylvester Stallone and Alain Delon.