King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Celita Schutz

American judoka

Born
17 February 1968, Houston
Citizenship
United States
Sport
judo
Occupation
judoka
Height
165 cm (5 ft 5 in)
Weight
68 kg (150 lb)

Celita Valerie Schutz (born 17 February 1968) is an American judoka who competed in the 1996 Summer Olympics, in the 2000 Summer Olympics, and in the 2004 Summer Olympics on the women's team. She is a graduate of Yale University. class of 1990.

Schutz grew up in River Vale, New Jersey, where seeing her brother taking a lesson convinced her to take up judo at the age of six. She began training at a young age with Sensei Ogasawara at Kokushi Dojo, in Westwood, New Jersey. She became nationally ranked at age 14 and internationally ranked at age 16. While competing worldwide, much of Celita's extended international training occurred in Japan, Spain, Germany and Brazil. She became Captain of the 1996 US Olympic Women's Judo Team; held consecutive #1 ranking in the United States for seven years; and while accumulating medals from around the world, achieved highest ranking of 5th in the World with expert coaching of Sensei Matsumura, Technical Advisor of Kokushikai, Inc.

Competitions

External links

Facts from Wikidata Q5058114 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.

Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.