Hi welcome to my page! My name is Jemima Duxberry, I am 19 years old from Devizes, Wiltshire and I am a professional Judo athlete. Currently I’m ranked 4th in the world in my class.

I started Judo at school at the age of 5 along with many other sports but Judo being the only one I have a true passion for. By the age of 11 I was on the Great Britain squad and have been every year since, getting on the senior Great Britain squad at the age of 17. I trained at my local club, Devizes Judo Club from the age of 8 until I was 17 before going full time at Team Bath. I have represented Great Britain Internationally since the age of 12.

I moved my education to Bath College so I could focus on training full time at Team Bath, where I had been doing some sessions there since the age of 12 but fully committed to full time when I was 17. Training at Team Bath allows me to train with some of Britain’s top senior international Judoka’s and allows me to train 6 days a week completing 15 sessions including Judo technique, strength and conditioning, fitness and Judo sparring.

I have been Commonwealth Judo Champion and have represented Great Britain at 3 Junior European Championships and 1 Junior World Championships, where I got my career debut of 7th which unfortunately I had to withdraw from due to an ACJ shoulder injury. This put me out of competing for 6 months where I focused on rehab and strength and conditioning as I was going to return to competition. I recently competed in my first international since injury at the Greece European Cup where I got gold and this has placed me 4th on the International Judo Federation World Ranking List.

Judo is a minority sport where funding is very limited and  once again had its funding cut after the London 2012 Olympic Games. In order for me to train and compete to get to Junior European and World Championships I have to self fund a lot of competitions and training camps paying for all travel expenses, hotels, Judo kits plus competition fees. Each self funded European Cup costs around £500. As I’m not a funded athlete I am in need of help to get me to the Junior European and World Championships at the end of the year. I train around 25-30 hours a week, 6 days a week with my coach Juergen Klinger and the rest of the full time athletes of Team Bath. I travel everyday from Devizes to Bath to get to training and college at the moment but I’m moving to Bath in July to make it easier for me to get the recovery I need between sessions and to save on travelling.

I was close to winning a World Championship medal and I know I can go one step further to getting one this year before starting on the senior circuit. My aim is to raise £3,000 to help with living costs, all my training, travel costs and competition costs. With this funding I will be one step closer to winning that Junior World Championship medal.

Thanks for taking the time to read my story. If you want to keep up to date with what I am doing and what I have coming up take a look at my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/JemDuxberry70 or twitter www.twitter.com/JemDuxberry70 I am also currently in the process of creating my own website so will keep you posted on the launch of that.

All support towards helping me achieve my dreams is very much appreciated!