Return to mat helps judoka Elliot Stewart find silver lining out of the darkness

When Elliot Stewart lay in bed in total darkness for two long weeks in April 2017 after major eye surgery, he might have been forgiven for losing some of the fighting spirit he developed as a judoka. But not a couple of weeks later he was back on the judo mat - this time as a visually impaired (VI) athlete - and by August was competing at the European Championships where he placed fifth.

Eighteen months after the operation he credits with saving his sight, he’s a full-time Paralympic athlete, ranked fifth in the world and preparing for the World Championships which begin on Friday in Odivelas, Portugal. 

But the judoka’s rise is no coincidence. As the 30-year-old explains, he has spent a life in judo. 

“I was born in judo, my dad went to the Seoul Olympics in '88, and that was the year I was born. He started a judo club after he retired so as a kid I was crawling around the mat, jumping around even when I shouldn’t have been up there.”

His father, Dennis, an Olympic bronze medallist in Seoul, coached Stewart and his brother Max, 25, to the top national level throughout their teens. Max has since become the highest-ranked under 90kg British judoka, whereas a five-year relocation to Hong Kong stalled Elliot's development with Team GB in his early twenties. Upon his return to the UK in 2014 he placed fourth at the nationals, but was not training seriously thereafter. 

Two years later, midway through a degree, juggling raising a young family and teaching judo at schools, he noticed a problem with his sight. The diagnosis - a condition called Keratoconus - meant his vision would remain permanently blurred. Forced to give up his job as he could no longer drive and with his sight rapidly worsening, it was his family that rallied around him. 

“A private eye doctor said if you wait five months on the NHS you will have to have to have a full corneal transplant, where there’s a 60 per cent chance you could go blind," he explains. "So all my family chipped in the £2,500 per eye cost - without them I think I would have lost my sight."

While he lay bedridden recovering post-op, Stewart’s father was at the British Judo Centre at the University of Wolverhampton (where he is an elite performance coach), asking the VI coaching staff what they could do to help. Within two weeks his son was back on the mat.

“It was tough, tough times that. The operation was horrendous, fully awake for four and a half hours, and for two weeks I couldn’t use my eyes at all,” he says. “After, I did think 'I can’t do it', but stepping back on the mat after that first session changed everything. As soon as I finished it, I said that’s going to push me towards the Paralympics. It was like there’s nothing that I can’t do.”

Now he is a B3 competitor - the best-sighted category in VI judo - and preparing for his first World Championships. Though the journey back to the mat was quicker than he could have ever anticipated, it was not easy by any means. Not being able to see the scoreboard or subtle positioning movements made by his opponent mean he's had to adapt as a fighter - and revert to instinct.

“Before, the way I fought changed depending on if I was winning or if I was losing and how much by. Now I have to rely heavily on my coach at the side of the mat to relay scoreboard information to me. I’ve had to adapt.”

“I rely on my past experiences to get by. If I’m in a situation [when] I'm not sure visually, my body just reverts back to what I’ve done before - my gut feeling.”

Adapting has been made all the easier he says, by British judo’s mixed ability training set-up. As the rules remain almost identical, except that competitors in VI begin the fight gripping their opponent, it means training can be combined.

“Every session that we do we’re all together as one team and all the athletes thrive on that, able-bodied and VI. It means I practise with my brother just as always, nothing’s changed he doesn’t hold back at all,” Stewart laughs.

He says his resurgence in Team GB judo is the "silver lining" to a difficult couple of years, as without his diagnosis he may have never returned to full-time training.

“Without judo I wouldn’t have been able to overcome all I’ve lost, I'm able to do something I know I’m capable of doing full-heartedly. I lost my vision but the silver lining is that it helped me back into judo.”

It's not all he’s accomplished since his operation either. He completed his degree in PE (“It’s one of my biggest achievements, though my dissertation was horrendous to do”), continues to coach at the judo club he and his brother set up and helps home school his three children.

He laughs at the prospect of a third generation of Stewart judokas, but admits his two daughters are already on the mat. There is, however, a real possibility both he and his brother will be at the next Games if both earn the ranking points to qualify - and you can see the determination that has got him this far so soon whenever Tokyo 2020 is mentioned. 

“Tokyo is the dream, this World Championships is one more stepping stone to there. What we want is for us both to be at the Games.”