The Paris Grand Slam is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the judo calendar and medalling, let alone winning, at the event can be considered a great achievement.

Ahead of this weekend’s competition we picked out 12 interesting facts and figures involving both British and International judoka at the Paris Grand Slam since it started in 1971 as the ‘Tournoi de Paris’.

1. The first British medallists were David Starbrook and Angelo Parisi in 1973

2. Britain have won a total of 47 medals at the Paris tournament

3. The first British gold medallists were Karen Briggs (pictured) and Sharon Rendle in 1992

4. Nigel Donohue was the first British man to win the Paris tournament in 1993

5. Craig Fallon (pictured) was the last British judoka to win the Paris tournament in 2003 

6. The last British medallist in Paris was Euan Burton in 2008

7. Teddy Riner won the +100kg category 6 years running from 2008 to 2013

8. France’s Lucie Décosse (pictured) has won the Paris tournament eight times including five years in a row from 2006-2011

9. Since 2004 only 6 judoka have defended their title in the men’s section at the Paris Grand Slam, Rishod Sobirov (2011-2012), David Larose (2012-2013), Wang Ki-Chun (2009-2010), Khasanbi Taov (2007-2008), Cyrille Maret (2014-2015) and Teddy Riner (2008-2013)

10. Multiple Olympic gold medallists David Douillet, Ayumi Tanimoto and Masae Ueno never won the Paris Grand Slam

11. 47 people have won both Paris Grand Slam and Olympic Gold medals

12. Greek judoka Ilias Iliadis has medalled at the Paris Grand Slam on four separate occasions in three different weight categories. Bronze in -81kgs, silver and gold in -90kgs and gold in -100kg

Be sure to follow all the action this weekend live on ippon.tv from 9am GMT on the Twitter via #JudoParis2016

Follow @BritishJudo on Twitter for live results updates involving the British team

Stats collated via judoinside.com