U.S. Garners Three Pan Am Judo Awards for 2025

The Pan American Judo Confederation (PJC), through its Recognition Commission, recently announced the winners of the PJC 2025 Annual Awards. These awards recognized the athletes, coaches, and referees who have demonstrated exceptional sporting performance, contributed to the development of judo, and embodied the values of Professor Jigoro Kano during the period from January 1 to December 31, 2025.

Nominations were officially submitted by affiliated National Federations, Commissions, and the PJC Board of Directors. Each proposal included verifiable evidence of the merits achieved by the applicants in their respective categories. The evaluation process followed the strict criteria for performance, ethics, and professionalism defined by the commission.

USA Judo members won awards in three separate categories.

Nineteen-year-old twins Brynn and Haley Buskerud (North Bend, Ore. / Shipyard Judo) earned the Kata Team award after capturing the U21 Ju-no-Kate World Championship gold medal in Paris on November 9. Their coach, Rob Schab (Coos Bay, Ore. / Shipyard Judo), also won the Kata Coach award for guiding the Buskerud sisters to the world championship title.

In the referee category, Tracy Crawford (Arvada, Colo.) was named IJF B Referee of the Year. Crawford was also named as USA Judo’s Referee of the Year for 2025.

Other finalists for the U.S. were Jonathan Yang (Los Angeles, Calif. / USA Judo National Resident Team) for Junior Male Athlete, Malia Manibog (San Gabriel, Calif. / San Gabriel Judo) and Kanta Ueyama (Burbank, Calif. / Los Angeles Tenri Judo) for Cadet Athlete, Felix Carrera (Somerset, N.J. / Ricardo Tuero Judo Club Inc.) for Veteran Athlete, Colton Brown (Bridgewater, N.J.) for Senior Coach, Israel Hernandez (Keswick, Va.) for Junior Coach and Brian Toth (Seattle, Wash.) for IJF A Referee.