Sally Conway

Sally Conway first discovered Judo when her father took her along to a local club in her home town of Bristol. Displaying a natural talent for the sport, she has gone on to become one of the most skilled practitioners of ne-waza (ground technique) in her weight category and has beaten some of the best Judokas in the world. 

In 2005, when she was 18, Sally left home and her training base at Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre in Bristol to follow her dream of moving to Edinburgh to work with acclaimed high performance coach Billy Cusack at Edinburgh Judo. 

Sally’s career started with a silver medal at the Junior World Championships in 2006.  Since then, Sally has won multiple International Judo Federation World Tour medals, one of her most memorable being her gold medal winning performance in Baku 2015, where with ten seconds to go, she defeated World No.1, Kim Polling for Ippon. 

Sally made her Olympic debut at London 2012 and in 2014, competed for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games where she claimed a bronze medal.  At the Rio Olympics in 2016, Sally made history by becoming the first Scottish judoka to win an Olympic medal, securing Bronze. In 2019, Sally added to her medal collection with a bronze in the World Championships in Tokyo, her first World Championship medal.

Sally is determined to use her success to inspire the next generation of judoka. Fiercely competitive, she has the respect of her peers and fellow competitors, yet with her bubbly, positive personality and general enthusiasm for life, she is hugely popular with both her fellow athletes and judo fans across the country.

*Photo courtesy of Aaron Sims, The Gazette