From Judoka to Priest: The Journey of a Champion of Faith

He took off his kimono for the Roman collar. Former high-level judoka Jason Nioka, 28, muscular body highlighted under his black shirt, has just joined a new team: that of the 105 priests ordained in 2024. It was on June 23, in his native diocese of Meaux (Seine-et-Marne). A mission that he is starting with a bang in the run-up to the Olympic Games. Here he is ready to lead a team of forty Catholic chaplains who will take turns to offer spiritual support to athletes around the world. An enormous pressure on the shoulders of these athletes who have been training for four to eight years. “In the event of failure, we must help them return to reality and remind them that it is not an end in itself, that they always have a perspective on life,” explains the former competitor, his face affable, his eyes sparkling. We can sense that he is fulfilled.

A faith assumed

However, little Jason, who stepped on his first tatami mat at the age of three, dreamed of being an Olympic athlete. A competitor at heart, he accumulated belts, often arriving first at training sessions until he joined the Espoirs pole at school, then the prestigious France pole in Strasbourg. But in parallel with this rise, the young athlete experienced an intense spiritual life. During his first pilgrimage to Lourdes, at the age of 13 – with his parents and four brothers and sisters – the teenager who only knew “that God existed” felt an intense inner peace. If at the beginning, Jason Nioka may have prayed for the “win”, maturity caught up with him. “The Lord can’t have a favorite”, he thought, his eyes wide. At 15, then announced as the favorite for the French championships, he could not dry his tears when he lost in the first round. “Do you think that judo will take you to Heaven?” his mother retorted.

Little by little, he assumed his faith with his other comrades, even going on Wednesday evenings, after training, to Strasbourg Cathedral where he placed candles at the request of his judoka friends.

A life choice

At 19, his father died, an ordeal that made him discover hope. The following year, he moved to England to improve his performances with other judokas. But he increasingly deserted the dojo in favor of the parish. “That’s where I was happiest,” he remembers, his broad smile still there. It was decided: he would join the seminary. A life choice that did not surprise his family and was welcomed “with kindness” in the world of sport. But he did not abandon his passion, which he continued to practice on Wednesdays. So why not become the first Olympic judoka priest? The man with the trimmed beard shakes his head: “High-level sport is a vocation, the athlete’s life is measured to the millimeter, you have to dedicate your life to it and that does not match the priest’s mission.” The gold medal goes to faith.