Judo made its Olympic debut, for men, in Tokyo in 1964 with three specific weight categories, plus an open category for competitors of any weight. After missing Mexico City 1968, the sport returned permanently to the Olympic program in Munich in 1972.

Women's judo became an Olympic sport at Barcelona 1992, after being a demonstration event at Seoul 1988.

Australia has competed in every Olympic judo competition. In the women's judo demonstration event at Seoul 1988, Australia's Suzanne Williams won a gold medal. Australian Ted Boronovskis won a bronze medal in the open category at Tokyo 1964 and Maria Pekli matched that achievement in the women's 59 kilogram category at Sydney 2000.

There are 14 events on the judo program with seven events for men and women. The duration of the contests are five minutes for both men and women (actual time). The clock stops each time the referee interjects so a more realistic time for a contest is about eight minutes.

The objective in judo is to defeat an opponent by scoring an 'Ippon' (one point). This can be done by throwing the opponent onto his or her back with force, speed and control.

There is an elimination system of competition with double repechage. This means that, for all categories, the contestants will be divided into two tables (table A and table B) by means of a draw and an elimination system will be used to produce two finalists. The two finalist compete for the gold and silver medal.

All competitors defeated by the group winners and runners up (A1, A2, B1 and B2), take part in the repechage of their respective pools (to play off for bronze). Their final contest will be against B2 and A2. The respective winners of those contests are placed third, the two losers are placed fifth.

The losers of the final repechage contests are placed seventh.