Judo in the United States however, the lecture had little effect on mainstream judo growth. The first American to actually study judo was Prof. Ladd from Yale University, in 1889. He trained at the Kodokan in Japan for about ten years; by 1908 about 13 Americans were training there. In 1919, Prof. John Dewey of Columbia University came to visit Prof. Ladd and Master Kano, many years later he took his knowledge back to Columbia and began the first U.S. college judo program. While some students were training in Japan there was some action in the U.S. Perhaps one of the most important figures in
Judo in Canada (2011), Raymond Damblant (2012), and Hiroshi Nakamura (2012). Eleven Canadians are ranked "hachidan" (eighth dan), twenty-seven are ranked "shichidan" (seventh dan), and approximately 85 others are ranked "rokudan" (sixth dan). The names of the ninth and eighth "dan" holders are listed in the tables to the right. A typographic dagger () follows the names of those who are deceased. A registry of approximately 5000 black belts ranked "shodan" (first "dan") to "hachidan" (eighth "dan") in the years 1946–1997 is included in Glynn Leyshon's book "Judoka: a history of Judo in Canada". Canadians have won five Olympic medals in Judo since