Four years after losing a gold medal in the final minute in Beijing, Kim Jae-bun left no doubt in London.

The South Korean judoka, an Olympic silver medalist in 2008, defeated upstart Ole Bischof of Germany to capture the gold medal in the men's 81-kilogram division at the 2012 Summer Olympics at the ExCeL Center in London.

Kim, picked before the Games as the gold-medal favorite in his weight class by Sports Illustrated, scored early on Bischof with an o uchi gari inside trip, scoring a yuko (one point under competition scoring). He followed that up with a second yuko, and continued to attack through the remainder of the bout, looking to end the match with a choke as Korean fans chanted his name. Bischof was able to repel those attempts, but was unable to mount any offense of his own, and finished with the silver medal, a more-than-respectable prize for a judoka who was not picked to medal before these games.

In the women's 63-kilogram division, Urska Zolnir of Slovenia captured gold with a win over Xu Lili of China. Zolnir, a crowd favorite at the ExCeL Center, scored early with a seoi nage shoulder throw that scored a waza ari (10 points). Zolnir continued to work for another score, but Xu was able to avoid being thrown again, although she drew a stalling warning in the process.  Xu was able to throw Zolnir for a yuko as time expired, but it didn't matter, as Zolnir added her first gold medal to the bronze she won in 2004 in Athens, making her the most successful Slovenian judoka of all time.

In the bronze medal bouts, Yoshi Ueno of Japan and Gevrise Emane of France won bronze in the women's 63-kg, while Canada's Antoine Valois-Fortier and Russia's Ivan Nifontov won medals in the men's 81-kg.