Judo coach readies for Olympics

Although Barron works as a full-time real estate agent, he's been flying around the world for competitions in his down time for the past several years. He takes "a week off here, a week off there" to attend conferences and camps. In fact, he just got back from an international training camp in Spain earlier this month.

And when Barron's not traveling, he's spending time at home reviewing tapes of the competition.

Barron was born and raised in San Mateo County and started taking judo lessons when he was just 8. At the time, he said judo was even less popular in the United States than it is today.

"Americans like winners," Barron said. "We won't see media attention unless we're in the winner's circle."

The U.S. team didn't capture any medals in 2000. It brought home a single bronze in 1996 out of a possible 42 medals.

There are 14 divisions; seven women's divisions and seven men's divisions. The 12-member team U.S. team qualified for all the men's divisions and five of the women's divisions for the 2004 games.

The team was selected in June, but Barron's been working with the nation's top players for the past several years.

"We definitely have a chance for three or four medals," Barron said.

The U.S. team's strongest contender for a medal is Massachusetts native Jimmy Pedro, Barron said. Pedro will compete in the 73-kilo division, where he will go up against the reigning world champion from Korea. Pedro will also face stiff competition from players from Ukraine and Japan, Barron said.

Although Japan is the traditional powerhouse in judo, Barron said there's been an increasing parity in the world over the past 10 years. The Cuban women's team is the best in the world, for example. European countries like Spain and Estonia pose enormous threats as well.

"Japan opened its doors and the competition's evened out," Barron said. "It's becoming a lot more international."

Despite the sport's increasing profile, Barron said judo's still not as popular as he'd like it to be.

"We're trying to figure out a way we can get more involvement from the local government to open up the sport," Barron said.

Barron is flying to Athens Aug. 6; the competition starts Aug. 14.