July - 2016
SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
20
SFM:
What was going
through your mind on the
plane ride home from the
2012 Olympics?
ND:
I was in a state of shock
so to be honest I can’t really
remember. It was a dark and
lonely few weeks for me.
SFM:
Did you decide then
that you were going to try to
qualify for the 2016 Olympics
or did that motivation come
later?
ND:
After a few weeks, I came
to the conclusion that the easy
thing to do would be to give
up and just fade into anonym-
ity and the hard thing to do
would be to face my shame
head on. I knew then that
doing the hard thing was the
right thing to do.
SFM:
What and/or who moti-
vated you to go for it?
ND:
My family and my girl-
friend helped me realize that
after spending almost my entire
life sacrificing and putting in so
many thousands of hours of hard
work, to give it all up would be a
waste of all those years.
SFM:
Did you expect the
backlash that ensued? (From
the judo community, local
community, friends, fans etc.)
ND:
To be honest I think I was
a little naive in that respect.
Those memories still haunt me
because it spilled out onto my
family. The worst part of it was
that the hate and vitriol spewed
towards me mostly came from
“friends”...people who have
known me since I was 5 years
old. I had this assumption that
when you go through con-
troversy your friends will be
there, that during my darkest
