Claudia Heill
Claudia Heill was an Austrian judoka best known for winning the silver medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's 63 kg|half-middleweight (63 kg) division] at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Career
In addition to her success at the 2004 Summer Olympics, Heill won silver medals at the European Championships in 2001 [European Judo Championships – Women's 63 kg|2001] and 2005 and bronze medals in 2002, 2003 and 2007. She placed fifth at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's 63 kg|2008 Summer Olympics] and retired one year later. After retiring from competition, she began coaching junior judoka.Heill in 1998 aged 16 won the 63 kg category at the Senior Austrian National Championships. Later that same year Heill won silver at the Junior World Championships where she lost to the Japanese Keiko Maeda. Within a month Heill took the gold medal at the [1998 European Junior Judo Championships|Junior European Championships (Bucharest)]. Heill’s position as a world-class judoka in the 63 kg category was developing quickly. In 2000, at the Junior World Championships (Nabul) she won bronze and at the Junior European Championships (Nicosia) she won silver. By 2001, Heill began concentrating on her senior career and she took a silver medal in the European Championships (Paris) and placed fifth at the 2001 [World Judo Championships – Women's 63 kg|World Championships (Munich)].
Heill spent the next seven years competing internationally. She was one of four Austrians to take gold medals at the World Military Championships in 2006 helping her country top the medal table. Her finest hour was her silver medal-winning performance at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. “This had been her dream even as she began practicing her first judo attacks as a seven-year-old,” said her longtime coach Hubert Rohrauer.
Heill was part of the organizing committee at the European Championships in Vienna in 2010 and a commentator on JudoTV at the Judo World Cup in Oberwart.