Born on 30 May, 1970 in Venendaal (Netherlands), Hans Van Essen started judo ten kilometers from where he now lives. He is the architect of the JudoInside database, a kind of Kodokan for judo statistics enthusiasts, and the number one fact-checking reflex of most journalists called upon to chronicle this environment. With Paris 2024 just hours away, we take a closer look at a Who’s Who of its own. – JudoAKD#011.
A French version of this interview is available here.
Hans, you’re the man behind the JudoInside website. What in your background led you to embark on this adventure?
As a sports fan, I knew from the age of ten what I wanted to become: not a judoka but a sports journalist. I didn’t have the talent to become a top-level judoka, but it was the sport that put me on the path to becoming a reporter. When I was 18, I started studying journalism. I preferred not to be a writer but to work for radio and television, with a preference for the latter. Very soon I was working as an editor on sports programmes for national television, but I discovered that my qualities lay more in the rapid search for data than in pure journalism.
What did this realisation trigger?
I had already started filing judo bouts, first in boxes of index cards, then in the first computers with spreadsheets that were then converted into the JudoInside database. As a young judo journalist, I wanted to know who counted on the international tour. In 1992, I went to the Barcelona Olympics, as much as a judo fan and visitor as a novice journalist.
When did you start accelerating the database project?
In 1995, I set up my own information company for TV journalists. Being in contact with the main commentators on Dutch television, I made it easier for my colleagues to get information. In 2000, I was already working for the Sydney Olympic Games where I could literally do flash interviews along the carpet for SOCOG (Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games). I was the judo specialist. I organized the press conferences, I wrote all the previews and reports for each day and each weight, I knew all the athletes… I did the same in Athens in 2004 and, of course, I had the opportunity to unseat the finest judokas like Inoue, Nomura (now a TV commentator himself) and Iliadis…
In what way do the Olympic Games represent a different level?
The conditions are different, the pressure is greater, but the number of participants is not necessarily higher. It’s the pressure off the mat that makes the difference. I’ve experienced the Games up close and personal a number of times now and it’s obviously the pinnacle you want to work towards.
Did you also go to Beijing?
I was supposed to go to that Olympics, yes, but with young children at home I unfortunately had to give up.
So when did you officially create JudoInside? I remember that at the World Championships in Rotterdam in 2009 and Tokyo in 2010, you offered a printed version – a Bible!
JudoInside has been around since 2002 and I’ve been developing it ever since, especially after 2014, but obviously I’ve been keeping data on judo for much longer than that. The very first publication was in 1992, when I created a handbook of all the results. It was unique and quite sought after, but the reality is that books don’t really sell. Commercially, it was stupid, but in the long term, it was the beginning of JudoInside.com… I have also produced many media guides, books of around 200-300 pages with all the profiles of all the athletes with their best performances and records in one complete book, either for the event organiser, the IJF or the EJU. In my opinion, these books are a little out of date. A digital form is still needed with up-to-date information, ideally in a web-based form. This is one of the good reasons why the IJF created Judobase.
How do you see this competing site?
They’re not so much competitors as colleagues who want to take and keep the initiative of investing themselves in a substantial database for various purposes. As someone who specialises in media information and analysis, I think we’ll be able to work together in the future to create a strong commitment to judo, both for amateurs and the media, to build bridges between the past and the present, and so on.
Why judo? When did it become more than just a sport for you?
I started judo at the age of six. It wasn’t until I started competing that I really began to enjoy it. It wasn’t until I got my green belt that I started to get serious about it, with numerous regional competitions and constant progress under the guidance of Cent Scherpenisse, my teacher. The ‘more than a sport’ element was already ingrained in me when I was doing journalism. I liked looking at the big picture, telling heroes, linking the past and the present and providing new insights that surprised people.
That sounds like an excellent definition of what your site is today…
I was the first to have a real online database on judo. It has become the reference point for many judokas at the end of their career and even when they become coaches. They keep coming back to the site because it’s the most comprehensive. The values of sport are universal and those of judo are important as a model sport at the IOC. This content is also important when athletes have to fight to justify the cost of their competitions. Any athlete who is even remotely creative can use this information in their dealings with their partners, to convince them to support them.
You’ve also worked with a number of judo institutions. What have you learnt from these experiences?
In 2009, I started working as media director for the European Judo Union (UEJ) and was active at the London 2012 Olympic Games, where I again supported the team by providing information and, of course, reporting on behalf of the UEJ. I worked for the UEJ until the 2014 European Championships. I have also been media director for events such as the European Championships and the World Championships, or as part of a team of media experts at events not necessarily related to judo. This was the case, for example, at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia. Judo was not one of the sports selected, but I still produced statistics for the other sports.
Will you be doing something on the Paris Games?
Absolutely. For Paris, I’m producing the 372 biographies on behalf of the organisation, so it’s a very busy period. Of course, we’re doing a few extra profiles because we don’t know in advance all the athletes who will qualify. This is a project that has been underway since September 2023, for which we have interviewed many Olympic athletes in the run-up to the Games. These biographies will be available on the Info system during the Paris Games, providing the entire Olympic family, including the medias, with detailed information about the athletes. This will be a particularly valuable resource for TV commentators, who may not have an in-depth knowledge of the sport, and in the end it’s all about the two-week window, where the aim is to be at the top of your game to make the media’s job easier.
Do you also work on other sports?
Yes, I work on other sports. Since 2007, I’ve been a TV commentator for Eurosport/Warner Bros, notably at the Paris Olympic Games. After the first week, judo is over but I continue to commentate on sports that I know less about. Teamwork with my colleagues in other sports is important so that when I commentate on another sport, I also have insider information, the list of entrants, biographies, the favourites lined up and a few eye-catching statistics that count at the time…
How would you describe the art of commentary?
I’d say that, as in judo, it’s all a question of timing. Don’t give away everything you know straight away, wait for the right moment to say.
What would be your ideal media guide?
My ideal guide would be a combination of JudoInside and the current IJF database, with real-time information and the more sophisticated JudoInside knowledge that can’t always be found in fixed tables and statistics, but needs to be dynamic for each fight and each event. Every fight tells a different story and there are only a few people in the world who can offer these statistics and these ways of telling stories. I’m the one who can offer them to TV commentators and fans when they need them. But there are still a lot of blind spots. In the future, I’d like to play a role in this missing link, so that we can also produce videos, graphics and stories before events happen. In a word: providing information before it becomes information. I bet we’ll be exploring these ideas in the next Olympic cycle.
What is the profile of your readers?
Because of the importance of the country and the interest in the sport, many visits come from the United States. However, JudoInside is geared more towards Western Europe, so a lot of the traffic comes from Germany, Italy and France, as well as Brazil. In the past, the site had some success during events, but the IJF has replaced that with real-time information. So JudoInside has become more stable throughout the year, because we are a good source according to Google and we rank well when people search for events and athletes. I expect the Olympics to be a high point in terms of traffic, as judo in general gets a lot more interest from sports fans around the world, not just judo. The peaks are lower than when JudoInside was the only source, but it has become a constant factor with all the news, including that which the reader doesn’t expect. It’s the fastest media in judo and covers all events, not just those organized by the IJF or continental unions. At JudoInside, you have to earn your place, but when you’re there, it means something. Judokas know that.
How does it feel to be the main source of information for many journalists specialising in judo? Is it a source of pride or, at the same time, extra pressure to be accurate every day?
It’s obviously satisfying to be at the top of a press gallery where the laptops have turned blue because they’re all watching and using JudoInside. This has been the case. Although many use the IJF website, many use JudoInside because it contains more useful information. The IJF can be more detailed in live events but, from a historical point of view, JudoInside remains the source for a journalist. When I see Tadahiro Nomura using JudoInside and I meet him, I notice that he is happy to meet the founder of the site. In fact, I meet a lot of people who are surprised and happy when they notice that JudoInside is a ‘one-man army’, and I say this with all due respect to all those who have contributed and are still contributing – they know who they are. Of course, it’s nice to be able to show the athletes surprising things that they haven’t seen before. For the Olympic Games, I try to produce statistics that are relevant to the television commentators. For example, to make the link between the Youth Olympic Games and the current Olympic Games, there are five YOG winners at the Paris Olympics. Three of them are competing in the U63kg category. Some of the athletes know each other from their time in Russia, Mongolia or Georgia, but they now fight for other countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Israel or Azerbaijan, but their history goes back a long way. I put myself under pressure to find relevant articles on a regular basis.
It’s almost a daily challenge…
I’m proud of my contribution to judo. On the other hand, I think I could contribute even more if we all joined forces, the IJF, JudoInside, JudoCrazy and other initiatives. This would allow judo fans, judo journalists, sponsors to have the best possible experience at live events and bring together the past and the present where relevant.
You were talking about people collaborating on your site. Do readers help you by giving you data or information?
Yes, readers send us information, mainly because they feel that some of their own results are missing. Sometimes it’s too detailed, like the U15 championships. On the other hand, some events are not detailed enough… But sometimes I meet some great correspondents, who find a certain satisfaction in contributing for their country or spotting errors that need to be corrected. I really appreciate that.
You also have a kind of partnership with Malaysian Oon Yeoh…
Oon Yeoh, from JudoCrazy.com, I’ve mentioned previously is one of the few contributors with in-depth editorial skills. There aren’t many who have this ability. Oon and I are a unique team. We both have our jobs and other activities, but when we really team up, we have a thousand ideas a minute. For events, we usually come up with an editorial plan. We’ve also teamed up to make judo magazines and other digital products available free of charge. People underestimate the combination of people who have so many ideas a minute with people who can implement those good ideas. JudoInside and JudoCrazy combine these capabilities.
You seem to be a very busy person. What other projects are you working on at the same time?
Apart from JudoInside, which I’ve been working on for 25 years, I work for television. I’m going to be doing the television commentary for the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium) on Eurosport, which is a great honor. I’ve been doing it since 2007, but getting our own broadcast rights and having the Games in Europe is particularly important. I influenced the decision to broadcast the judo tournament in its entirety, because it wasn’t initially planned to broadcast it in its entirety.
You also work with an equipment manufacturer, don’t you?
Yes, I’m the distributor for the Netherlands and Belgium for IPPONGEAR, a world-renowned German brand whose ambassadors are Matthias Casse, Sanne van Dijke, Anna-Maria Wagner, Barbara Matic and Lukas Krpalek. More than 50 athletes will be taking part in the Games, but in my commercial sector, Casse and van Dijke are particularly noteworthy. I’ve also helped a number of federations analyse judo data, giving them the editorial resources to trace their history, link it to current events and highlight unique records or milestones.
If the Hans of 2024 could give advice to the man who started collecting data in 1992, what would he say?
In 1992, the technique was completely different to what it is today. I would never have started with boxes of index cards, for example. After that, I started digitising the information quite quickly, and I don’t regret it. What I did at the beginning was to record complete surnames instead of separating surnames and first names. It was only later that I separated the two. I would therefore recommend collecting as much information as possible and saving it in different fields. Perhaps I should have invested more in programming, that would have helped. On the other hand, you can’t do everything you want, but yes, on reflection, I do miss the possibility of programming my ideas. Because that would allow me to offer unlimited judo data. And maybe even market it more.
Over the years, I’ve learnt above all to be patient. My speed and endurance are not the speed and endurance of others. Some people start by getting excited about ideas, but after a few months they can’t keep up. So I have to understand that the momentum I have – purely out of passion – is different from that of most others. They probably have other passions or interests. My passion is to provide information about judo in the best possible way.
As you can see, some others have been inspired by my way of presenting things. That’s fine by me, because it proves that it’s the best way – but it’s not necessarily the only way, and more importantly it’s energy-consuming. I’m looking forward to developing new presentation ideas. For example, presenting a way, like the football transfer market, of automatically evaluating athletes on the basis of an algorithm. It wouldn’t be for a commercial reason, but to define the value of any win in the past and present. You can win against someone who is ranked number one or number 200. You can win against someone with ten years’ experience or against a beginner. So defining the value of each match would have meaning, like the ELO rating in chess or in tennis… In short, there’s still a lot to be done. – Interview by Anthony Diao, spring-summer 2024. Opening picture: Christian Fidler/JudoAKD.
A French version of this interview is available here.
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