Amy Cotton‘s incredible career as a Judoka is well-known throughout the maritime, national and international world of competitive Judo. She is a world class Olympic athlete, top-ten world champion, ultra-serious competitor, role model for countless young people involved in Judo, especially females, and is now a high performance coach with Judo Saskatchewan.

The list of competitors Cotton has met on the Judo mat in her march to the top echelon of the sport reads as a who’s who of the best of the best.

Cotton, one of four children of Daniel and Debbie Cotton, started in the Judique Judo Club after- school program at age six, and her health problems began around age 13 when she really began to take her sport seriously. As a young girl, Cotton started to get sick off and on with various symptoms but no real cause, eventually finding out that she had juvenile arthritis at age 17.

Because of her illness, Cotton would not only have to fight with her competitors, but also have to fight with herself during every match, and she couldn’t follow the normal training schedule of most athletes.

Cotton moved to Montreal to continue competing and training with the Canadian National team. She was with the National team for 18 years. She won 11 national titles, competed at the 2004 and 2012 Olympics, reaching the quarter-finals in 2004 and missing 2008 due to an injury. She finished seventh twice in 2005 and 2009 at the Senior World Championships and received the bronze medal at the 2003 Pan-Am Games in the Dominican Republic.

She won 29 medals at the world level, competing in cities like Paris, Prague, Hamburg, Warsaw, Tokyo, Moscow, Sao Paulo, Miami and Montreal.

Today she enjoys coaching in Saskatchewan, working with 12 to 20 year olds.

Bio courtesy of Paul MacDougall