'My body seemed slow': Canadian judoka Shady Elnahas eliminated in opening match at Olympics

When he got out of bed in the Olympic Village in Paris on Thursday, Canadian judoka Shady Elnahas felt something was off. Unable to shake off his uneasiness, the 26-year-old from Toronto saw his quest for a medal cut short in his first bout of the day.

Elnahas, who is originally from Alexandria, Egypt, was defeated by a waza-ari from Switzerland's Daniel Eich in the under-100-kilogram category Round of 16 after 34 seconds of sudden-death overtime at Champ-de-Mars Arena.

"When the day started, I wasn't really feeling well," Elnahas said. "You have to find a way, but I didn't find one. ... Nothing was working. My body seemed slow."

That's the beauty and the cruelty of the Olympics, said head coach Antoine Valois-Fortier. "It's one day every four years. You get up and it's today, it's neither tomorrow nor yesterday," he said.

It will be up to the team to pinpoint why Elnahas was feeling that way Thursday, Valois-Fortier added.

"We shouldn't forget that just two months ago, Shady was still fighting for his place. Maybe the qualification process was long and demanding. Did he have time to recover? These are questions I don't have the answers to at this time," the coach said.

WATCH l Elnahas gets emotional after Round of 16 loss:

Eich, who is ranked 14th in the world and finished ninth in the world championship earlier this year, was bested by Elnahas at the Tokyo Grand Slam last year, the only time the two faced each other before Thursday.

"It's disappointing to lose against someone you usually beat. But that's judo — anything can happen," Elnahas said.

The 26-year-old usually has an aggressive fighting style but seemed to hesitate throughout Thursday's elimination bout at Arena Champ-de-Mars. The judoka, who finished the