Thirteen year old Isabelle Hawley is a local Judo player in training to be a future Olympiad. Like anybody who has ever achieved success, she has been through some struggles. She was an aspiring soccer player until she was diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA). Nearly 300,000 children, from infants to teenagers, in the U.S., have some form of arthritis. It is the most common type of arthritis in children.

In 2014, at the age of 9, JIA started attacking her joints, mainly in her ankles and knees. This ultimately forced her to have to find another sport to pursue. She found Judo through her brother who was practicing Judo at the time.

Judo is a modernized version of Martial Art. Starting Judo at the age of 9 is technically late according to most standards. Isabelle got her first taste of competition by winning multiple gold medals at small local tournaments. She then went on her way to winning the 2014 California State Games.

In 2016 Isabelle’s body began to struggle due to her having to take chemotherapy injections to help her fight off her disease. At the age of 12, she decided to look into better nutrition to help her keep her disease under control. Along with her family and coaches, Israel and Valerie Hernandez, Isabelle did not give up and fought back. Her strategy began to work.

In 2017, she started winning again, as well as, found her natural weight division 53kg. So far, Isabelle as won 6 Gold Medals, 1 Silver Medal, and 2 Bronze Medals. She was not only thriving on the mat, but she was thriving off the mat as well. Her body was overcoming the disease, and was reduced down to inflammation in one spot on her ankle.

Isabelle started competing on the National and International level where she won the Youth National Championship Jr. Olympics, International Jr. Olympics, and Golden State Open and she is 13-0 this season.

Isabelle has now defeated the Collegiate Novice National Champion from UC Berkeley. Her wins have secured her spot as the number one ranked Juv at 53kg female Judo player in the Nation. She is preparing for the Junior US Open on July 27th, 2018. She is also aiming to put her lock on the Infantile Pan Am team to represent the United States and USA Judo in Paraguay, November 2018.

Keep your eye on Miss Isabelle Hawley. You will be watching her compete in the Olympics one day, and she’ll be bigger, stronger, and better.