Bronze is golden to Methuen's Pedro

ATHENS -- Standing in the snow at a medal celebration at the 2002 Winter Games at Salt Lake City, Jimmy Pedro had a sudden inspiration. He took out his cellphone and called his wife, Marie, back in Methuen, Mass.

Retired for two years, but newly inspired by the gold medal performance by his friend, speedskater Derek Parra, the former world judo champion told his wife he was going to make another Olympic try. She said she had been expecting the news.

After a devastating performance in the Sydney Olympics four years ago, Pedro retired from judo. As reigning world champion, Pedro had been favored to win the gold, or certainly to medal, but he finished fifth. After those Games, Pedro said he was drained and depressed about the way his meteoric career ended.

"Seeing Parra at that gold medal ceremony just made me more determined than ever to come back and try it," he said. "I knew I had a shot."

But it was a long one. Pedro had to get in good enough shape to compete in a sport filled with much younger athletes. But Pedro, who is now 33, figured he had two things going for him -- his fitness level and determination.

Yesterday, in the 73-kilogram event at the Ano Liossia Stadium, Pedro realized his dream of a medal, taking the bronze after winning six of seven grueling matches. Pinning his final opponent's shoulders to the mat and tighting his grip, Pedro forced France's Daniel Fernandes to tap Pedro's shoulder in surrender.

In the final match of his career, the father of two won by "ippon", the most decisive margin possible, over Fernandes, a 31-year-old Olympic veteran who had beaten Pedro in the past.

After pumping his fists and giving a whoop of victory, Pedro climbed into the stands to embrace his father, Jim, and brother, Mike, both of whom were instrumental in his becoming the first American to win two judo Olympic medals.

"Whether I won the gold medal or not, this moment was everything I dreamed of," Pedro said. "This bronze is gold to me."

The only match he lost was his third of the morning, against South Korean world champion Lee Won Hee, who threw Pedro late in the match to score an ippon win. Behind on points with the clock running down in the five-minute bout, Pedro went on the attack -- a calculated risk, he said, because of his standing in the match.

But Lee took advantage of Pedro's momentum, dropping low and lifting suddenly, splitting Pedro's legs and spinning him down. "The first thing you learn in judo is not to get yourself moving forward into your opponent like that," Pedro said, "but I had to try something."

Lee went on to win the gold medal, with Russia's Vitaliy Makarov taking silver, and Brazil's Leandro Guilheiro the other bronze. Because of the sport's seeding system, each tournament has double bronze finishes.

Pedro, who began judo at age 6, coached by his father, made his debut in international competition in 1989 in Paris, and made his first Olympic team in 1992 (losing in the third round). As a 24-year-old at the Atlanta Games, he won his first bronze.

His career was on the rise, and in 1999 he became world champion, and so he went to Sydney as a favorite before what he terms "my disaster."

After that, he said, he never quite settled into life as a businessman, though he does work as a judo instructor and is marketing manager with Monster Inc.

"I could have stayed home and led a quiet life behind my desk," he said, "but I just decided to come back in for one last shot because I knew I had it in me to win with the best in the world, and I proved that today."

Though two of his matches were relatively easy, he said, after the loss to Lee, the medal-round matches were tough. Like most judokas, Pedro prefers to finish fights with devastating ippon moves, which he did three times. But in all but the loss, he started slow and gathered momentum, mainly because he wore his opponents down so that they took penalty points, often for lack of aggressiveness.

"That's just the level of fitness I'm at," he said. "I never really got out of shape, and the way I train I don't start fast and then slow down, which a lot of my opponents do."

Since committing to his final Olympic dream in March of 2003, Pedro has compiled a tournament record of 66-4, including wins over the man who beat him in Sydney, Korean Yong-Sin Choi, and Lee. Pedro is the only judoka to beat Lee in 18 months.

In yesterday's runup to his bronze, Pedro also defeated some of the world's top competitors.

"Today I had to fight every single minute of the day. I fought the world champ, I fought the world's silver medalist, and two of the guys I beat in the consolation round beat me last summer," said Pedro. "Those were very technical fights, and once I won those I was thinking, `Wow, I can get the bronze medal today.' "

Pedro's company, Monster, Inc., supports Olympic athletes in their transition from full-time athletics to life in the work world.

But for what he calls the ride of his life, Jimmy Pedro went just the other way.