Szymańska armlocked her way to a world final
Angelika Szymańska turns 27 today, nine days after the World Championships in Baku ended for her in the early rounds against Kerem Primo of Israel, who went on to reach the final. That is the kind of margin U63kg deals in now, and Szymańska knows both sides of it: two years earlier, in Abu Dhabi, she had won three contests in a row on the ground to reach the world final herself and take silver. Between those two Worlds lies the record of a judoka who has become one of the handful of women the division has to plan around.
The numbers are 29 international medals, ten of them gold, nine of them at Grand Slams. The best of 2026 came in Lausanne on 29 August, when she beat Clarisse Agbegnenou in the semi final and won the final for her second Grand Slam title, three years after her first in Baku in 2023. Around it sit bronze at the Grand Slam in Tashkent, bronze at the European Championships in Tbilisi in April, a second European senior bronze after Montpellier in 2023, and the Polish title in Kraków in May. Baku was the one that got away, and the next place to put it right is the 2027 World Championships in Astana.
Juji-gatame, uchi-mata and a coach who fought the same fights
Her judo is known for two things: the armlock and the uchi-mata. The juji-gatame is what carried her through Abu Dhabi in 2024, three consecutive wins by newaza on the way to the final, and it is the reason opponents at U63kg now fight her with one eye on the floor. She trains at KS Judo Szczepańska Team in Włocławek under Aneta Szczepańska, a former international competitor, and has never left the club that took her in at eight after she followed the neighbours’ children through the door. The progression from there is unusually clean: seventh at the European Cup in Bratislava in 2017, fifth at the European Open in Warsaw and European junior silver in 2018, European U23 silver in 2020 and the U23 title in 2021, then fifth at the senior Worlds in Tashkent in 2022, one place off the podium at 22.
Lucky socks, a game of Dobble and a bachelor’s degree
Off the mat she is a soldier, with a bachelor’s degree from the State Academy of Applied Sciences in Włocławek completed in 2023, and a painter, crocheter and reader when the schedule allows. The nickname Engis is a family twist on Angie. Her parents Adam and Edyta and her younger sister Martyna are close, and she is engaged to Konrad. Before she fights she puts on the lucky socks and plays a round of Dobble, then warms up. It is an ordinary life around a career that has reached a world final and beaten the best judoka of the past decade in a Grand Slam semi. The division will not get easier before Astana. On the evidence of Lausanne, neither will she.
Back to the overview