- Lubjana Piovesana accused Lucy Renshall of sexual assault when she was a Team GB athlete
- She left the Team GB set-up in 2021 when the bullying allegation was dismissed
- On Tuesday, Piovesana secured an emotional victory over Renshall
An Austrian judoka took revenge on British judoka Lucy Renshall on Tuesday after she accused the Team GB athlete of bullying her.
Lubjana Piovesana defeated Renshall 1-0 in golden score, ending the -63kg last-16 grudge match with a Waza-Ari takedown, leaving her British opponent devastated.
Piovesana was a Team GB athlete until 2021, but defected after allegations of bullying by her and other athletes against Renshall and judo coach Jamie Johnson were dismissed.
According to The timesTheir feud involved an alleged Renshall hit-out, a police report and a two-year investigation into the UK’s “toxic” judo culture.
“She was one of the reasons I left British Judo. She was the one who attacked me, so it was really important to win today,” she said after the match.
Austrian judoka Lubjana Piovesana (pictured) defeated Lucy Renshall on Tuesday, taking revenge on a competitor she called a “bully”
Piovesana left the Team GB squad in 2021 after her bullying allegations were dismissed by an independent investigation
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‘I never thought I would be here at the Olympics [after what happened at British Judo]so I’m glad to be here. I’m glad I won. I feel like I made it.’
Piovesana alleged that Renshall began kicking and punching her without provocation during a fitness training session in July 2019.
After reporting this to West Midlands Police, Renshall is said to have apologised.
“All kinds of little things were happening, little comments kept coming, it was getting more and more annoying, and then she attacked me,” Piovesana said.
‘The coach was quite cruel to me, he made comments. My father wrote an email saying, “My daughter is really upset, can something please be done?”
“And he read it out on the mat in front of everyone and then he wouldn’t talk to me anymore. I felt like a victim.”
Piovesana, who was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Olympic Games, even claims that at one match she was told she could not sit with the rest of the team for her own safety.
An independent panel rejected her allegations of harassment but made recommendations on how British judo could improve its culture.
Renshall (pictured) apologized in 2021 after Piovesana reported an alleged assault to police
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When Piovesana left British Judo in 2021, she wrote on Instagram: ‘I was given a choice: face the bullying and keep my funding or walk away and give up my Olympic dream. After months of suffering, I decided it wasn’t worth feeling so much pain.’
Renshall was in tears after her defeat on Tuesday. Judo is such a brutal sport. The last 12 weeks have probably been the best 12 weeks of training I’ve ever done. I felt like I had more to give,” she said.
British Judo declined to comment when contacted by MailOnline.
