Megan Fletcher
Judo
BIOGRAPHY
Megan Fletcher represented Ireland in the women’s under-70kg judo event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, becoming only the second woman to represent Ireland in Olympic judo after Lisa Kearney at London 2012.
She finished fifth overall, losing a dramatic repechage bout to Austria’s Michaela Polleres when Polleres landed a waza-ari score with just three seconds remaining. Fletcher was born in Reading and grew up in Wokingham, Berkshire, where she trains at Pinewood Judo Club. She took up judo aged five and has trained at the University of Bath since 2007. Her mother Alma is from Bruff, Co. Limerick, and Fletcher first competed for Ireland in 2017 after previously representing England and Great Britain.
She won Commonwealth gold at the 2014 Glasgow Games for England in the 70kg category, and was also British champion. For Ireland she won bronze at the European Open in Belgrade in 2017 on her debut, and made the Grand Prix podium in Marrakech, Tel Aviv and Montreal in 2019. She fought for bronze at the 2021 World Championships in Hungary – the highest level ever reached by an Irish judoka. Her younger brother Ben Fletcher also represented Ireland in judo at Tokyo 2020.
A qualified geography teacher, she took a break from teaching to train full-time ahead of Tokyo, where she retired from competitive judo after her defeat.
OTHER JUDO ATHLETES
JUDO NEWS
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