From a first international gold at age seven to the Youth Olympic Games, judo built the base for everything that followed.
Building on a foundation formed through an extremely disciplined childhood and early elite-level training, Andreas Tricomitis developed into one of the most dominant judo athletes Cyprus has produced.
After beginning judo at the age of four and rapidly progressing through national competitions, Andreas became a multiple-time Cyprus National Judo Champion, winning titles consistently across cadet, junior, and senior divisions over many consecutive years. His early dominance at national level led to regular selection for international competition from a very young age.
At the age of seven, Andreas competed in his first international tournament in Lebanon, where he won a gold medal. From that point onward, he continued competing regularly at international level throughout his youth.
At the age of thirteen, he entered his first major European competition, the International Judo Cup in Belgium, where he won all five of his matches, marking his arrival on the European judo scene. Over the following years, he competed consistently across Europe, and between 2005 and 2007 he secured multiple consecutive gold medals at international tournaments, firmly establishing himself among the top European judoka in his age category.
In 2007, Andreas was selected by the Cyprus National Judo Federation to represent Cyprus at the World Youth Island Championships in Corsica, where he won the bronze medal. That same year, he competed in two European A-Level Cadet Tournaments in Croatia and Portugal, events regarded as the highest level of competition for cadets in Europe. In his weight division, he faced the national champions of each country, drawn from more than 40 countries across both tournaments, winning five out of six matches in each event and securing bronze medals in both competitions. These achievements in judo and sport were unheard of for Cyprus at the time.
Following these results, Andreas was selected as the first-choice athlete by the Cyprus Olympic Committee to represent the country at the Youth Olympic Games, further confirming his status as one of Cyprus’ most promising judo athletes of his generation.
At 16 years old, Andreas travelled again to Japan to train at Tokai University. During this period, he trained daily in a high-performance environment alongside international and Olympic-level athletes. He officially earned his first black belt under the Japanese Judo Federation during this stay and returned to Japan on multiple occasions to continue his development, training with elite competitors, including Olympic champions such as Tokato Noahisa. He currently holds a 4th Dan black belt under the International Judo Federation (IJF).
He later represented Cyprus at the Junior World Championships in Thailand (2008) and Paris (2009), gaining experience against the highest level of international competition. Throughout his career, he continued to secure podium finishes at major events, including the European A-Tournament “Iliadis Cup” in Greece (2009) and appearances at the Belgium World Cup, where he won bronze medals.
In 2011, Andreas concluded his competitive judo career at multi-sport level by winning the bronze medal at the 14th Games of the Small States of Europe, adding another international podium to his record. He later decided to move away from competitive judo, as he found it increasingly difficult to adapt to the new rules, having grown up in a different generation where judo rules were structured differently and better suited to his style. Nevertheless, judo created the strongest possible foundation for his future, as he believes judo is the best martial arts base for translating into MMA.
