Leire Iglesias

Who is Leire Iglesias?

Leire Iglesias Armiño is a Spanish judoka, who played for the middleweight category. She is a five-time World Cup champion, and a silver medalist at the 2008 European Judo Championships in Lisbon, Portugal. She also won two bronze medals for the same division at the 1999 Summer Universiade in Palma de Mallorca, and at the 2003 Summer Universiade in Jeju City, South Korea.

Iglesias represented Spain at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where she competed for the women's middleweight class. In the preliminaries, she first defeated Brazil's Mayra Aguiar, and eventually upset world champion Gévrise Émane, who was considered a top medal contender in this event. She reached only into the quarterfinal round, where she lost by an automatic ippon to German judoka and Olympic bronze medalist Annett Böhm. Because her opponent advanced further into the semi-finals, Iglesias offered another shot for the bronze medal by defeating Ukraine's Nataliya Smal and Colombia's Yuri Alvear in the repechage rounds.