Sagi Muki

Sagi Aharon Muki (or Moki; Hebrew: שגיא אהרון מוקי; born 17 May 1992) is an Israeli Olympic and former world champion half-middleweight judoka. Muki is the 2019 World Champion. He also won the 2015 and 2018 European championships. In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics mixed team event, Muki was a member of the Israeli team that won a bronze medal.

In August 2011, Muki won the European Cup U20 in Berlin in the under 73 kilogram (161-pound) category. He won gold medals in February 2013 at the European Open in Tbilisi, Georgia, in June 2013 at the European Open Tallinn, and in October 2013 at the European Open Minsk in the under 73 weight class. He won the 2014 Baku Grand Slam in Azerbaijan in the under 73 kg category, and the following month he won another IJF World Tour gold medal, this time at the 2014 Havana Grand Prix in the under 73 kg category.

Muki is a two-time Israeli judo champion. In June 2015, representing Israel at the 2015 European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan, he won the gold medal and the European championship in judo in the under 73 kg weight class. Competing for Israel at the 2016 Summer Olympics he came in 5th place in the men's 73 kg event. He was ranked No. 1 in the world in March 2019.

Muki represented Israel at the 2024 Paris Olympics in judo in the men's 81 kg event, and came in ninth, and in the mixed team event, in which Team Israel came in ninth.

Muki was born and raised in Netanya, Israel, to a family of Yemenite-Jewish descent. His parents are Rahamim and Orit Muki, who were born in Netanya; his grandparents were born in Yemen, and made aliyah.

At the age of eight, he chose to focus on judo, which he had been practicing for four years, despite excelling in football for a Netanya junior soccer team, and also playing basketball and soccer. He attended Tchernichovsky High School in Netanya. As of June 2015 he still resided with his parents, for reasons of convenience and proximity to the Wingate Institute sports training facility. He served in the Israel Defense Forces as a Sergeant in the Vehicle Division at the Sde Dov airbase. He is a student at Reichman University, with a double major in Economics and Business Administration, and in the school's hall of fame.

From the age of four, Muki has been coached by Israeli judoka Oren Smadja, who won the Olympic bronze medal in the men's 71 kg weight category in judo at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Smadja is also the national team coach, and Muki views Smadja as a fatherly figure. His club is Maccabi Netanya, and he met future Israeli judoka world champion Yarden Gerbi there when he was four years old. He noted in 2013: "It's important to me to serve the State as an athlete. This year, I got to play the national anthem in Georgia, Estonia, and Belarus, and last year in Germany. Every time the audience stands for the anthem, it's fun and brings me great pride".

In April Muki came in fifth in the 2011 World Juniors Championships in the under 73-kilogram (161-pound) category. In August 2011 Muki won the European Cup U20 in Berlin in the under 73 kg category. In September, he came in third in the 2011 European Junior Championships in Lommel, Belgium, in the under 73 kg category. In December 2012, he won the Israeli Championships in the under 81 kilograms (179 lb) category in Ra'anana, Israel.