LONDON — Standing on the medal podium with gold draped around her neck, Kayla Harrison laughed and cried.
She thought of all the practices when it was difficult to pick herself off the mat. All the 4:30 a.m. wake-up calls for weightlifting sessions. All the moments her coaches at Pedro’s Judo Center in Wakefield, Mass., pushed her to be better. All the times she visualized winning an Olympic title. All that she had overcome.
Harrison, 22, saw her Olympic dream became reality Thursday afternoon in a packed ExCel North Arena. She defeated Great Britain’s Gemma Gibbons in the 78-kilogram division final, becoming the first US judo athlete to win Olympic gold. To celebrate, she walked around the arena draped in an American flag and blew kisses to a spirited crowd that included Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, and Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
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