Kolkata: Hifumi Abe was shaken and stirred. Sister Uta’s shock loss– and collapsing in sobs after that – meant the Abe siblings wouldn’t emulate their judo gold medal run from Tokyo three years ago. But it spurred Hifumi Abe into retaining his.

His sister’s defeat had made it a “hard day”, Hifumi Abe, 26, said on Sunday. “But I had the feeling all day that I had to work hard for my sister,” AP quoted the men’s 66kg champion as saying. “I felt I had no choice but to do my best as the older brother.”

The siblings are serial winners. Uta Abe is a four-time world champion who had not lost since 2019. Ditto her brother on the World Judo Tour. But in Paris, the family double didn’t happen because Uta Abe, 24, lost in the second round of the 52kg category to eventual gold medallist Diyora Keldiyorova.

To have an Olympian in the family is a big deal but the Games have a history of blood relations making the podium. The Swedish father-son duo of Oscar and Alfred Swahn were part of the 1908, 1912 and 1920 Games. Alfred Swahn also took part in 1924 and together they have 15 medals in shooting. Dhyan Chand, his brother Roop Singh and Dhyan Chand’s son Ashok Kumar are Olympic medallist as are Vece Paes and his son Leander. Ethiopia’s Dibaba sisters, Al Joyner, his sister Jackie Joyner-Kersee and wife Florence Griffith Joyner have Olympic gold medals as have the husband-wife duo of Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf.

So it fits that Abes are not the only siblings in Paris. Ukrainian twins Maryna and Vladyslava Aleksiiva will be aiming to better their artistic swimming bronze in Tokyo even though their world has turned upside down since. The 23-year-old sisters from Kharkiv, some 30km from the Russian border, have slept in bomb shelters, ran into the basement straight from the pool and left home throwing a few things into car and driving for over 24 hours to Italy. The pool in which they trained has been bombed.

Yet their routine is called, “It’s time to smile.” And it’s deliberate, Vladyslava Aleksiiva told Olympics.com. “We wanted to showcase our resilience, represent our country admirably in these testing times, and not show how difficult it is for us. And that’s why our music is quite cheerful and heroic.”

The twins have got team wins in World Cups, team silver in the 2024 world championships, women’s duet gold in the 2022 European championship and two duet silvers in the 2022 world championships.

The Sinkovics are not twins but Croatia is looking at the brothers to deliver again in the men’s rowing competition. Valent and Martin Sinkovic have begun well winning their men’s pair heat on Sunday. They won silver in the quadruple sculls in 2012, gold in double sculls in Rio and gold in the men’s pair in Tokyo.

“We certainly wouldn’t last that long if we were not brothers,” said Valent, 35, in an AFP report. Martin is 34.

Brother and sister, sisters who are twins and two brothers are still not as eyebrow-raising as a father-daughter duo in Paris. When South Korea’s Yeo Seo-jeong won bronze in the vault in Tokyo – the first woman from her country to medal in gymnastics – her father Yeo Hong-chul, silver medallist in the men’s vault in the 1996 Atlanta Games, was describing it to the television audience back home. With Seo-jeong scoring 14.183 and qualifying for the final, there could be a repeat.

Britain’s Jake Wightman knows how that feels. When he won the 1500m in the 2022 world championship, father Geoff was commentating. Geoff has been a marathon runner as has Jake’s mother Susan and aunt Angela, both competing in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

The father-son duo will be at work in Paris where Jake Wightman will face the challenge of defending 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen whose father Gjert though is no longer his coach. Gjert has been accused of domestic violence.

Tatsuru Saito’s father will also not be there but he is hoping memories of a two-time Olympic judo champion will guide the 22-year-old when the men’s 100+ kg begins on Friday. Saito’s father Hitoshi won the over-95kg gold in the 1984 and 1988 Olympics. He died aged 54 in 2015 from a rare form of liver cancer. “At the Paris Olympics I want to stand in the place where my father once stood,” Tatsuru Saito has said.

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