“I won the world championship for the first time!” Lucas Schaefer said. French Judo coach Lucas Schaefer showed prowess of “Sode Tsurikomi Goshi” in Men’s Individual – 90kg – M1 (30-34) at the World Masters Games 2025 Taipei & New Taipei City today, with the assistance from “Judo Star” Yang Yung-Wei and the support of his friend Ku, who is a famous YouTuber. He only spent 2’29” in winning four games and won the gold.
“It was perfect,” Ku, who cheered Schaefer on, said happily. “I didn’t know Lucas’ so powerful!” Schaefer and Ku were high school classmates. Their videos from two years ago, competing against “Judo Star” Yang Yung-Wei, have reached nearly 2 million clicks. “It was practice at that time,” Schaefer said. “Yang told me that there’s WMG in 2025, so I must not miss it.”
Schaefer is a judo coach in France. “Actually,” Ku said. “Lucas was very nervous competing this time because he didn’t have any chance to compete or train, but could only do some exercise to maintain his physical ability in France. Thankfully, he practiced twice with the judo team of the University of Taipei through Yang’s introduction. I took him to a wedding banquet on Saturday, but he couldn’t eat much food because of the competition. Poor him!”
When it comes to his love towards Taipei and Taipei City, he smiled and said that he planned to stay in Taipei & New Taipei City for two weeks to travel around and taste the delicacies. “I love chicken fillets and stir-fried foods!” Schaefer said.
Schaefer showed his muscles during the 90 kg competitions. He only spent 12″ winning the first game with an ippon by Sode Tsurikomi Goshi, and the Kyrgyzstan athlete of his second game did not start. After 1’13” competing against athlete Chang Hao-Wei, who also won three games, Schaefer finally won the game by pinning the opponent for 10 seconds and grabbed the gold with four wins.
Schaefer hurt his elbow a little bit after the competition. “I almost compete every year,” Schaefer said happily. “But most of the time, I compete against young people. However, this is my first world championship! I’d like to thank Yang and the coaches and athletes of the University of Taipei. Yang told me that many people can practice with me in Taipei, and they’ve trained me well. This is the key reason why I performed well today.”
Schaefer loves judo very much and has started practicing it since he was five. “I started competing when I was six, and judo is my job now. I train with and compete against my students every day now, I really love judo.”
Schaefer admired the Judo Star, Yang, very much.”I know that his coach is competing,” Schaefer said. “I’ll come to watch. Yang’s great. I think he’s the top athlete in the 60 kg level.”
