Kitadai was born in
São Paulo, Brazil, and is a member of the athletic club Barueri in São Paulo and the club Sogipa. He is coached on the Brazil national team by
Luis Shinohara and Mario Tsutsui.
2009-2012 In 2009, Kitadai, who is
Jewish, won a
bronze medal in the
2009 Maccabiah Games in
Tel Aviv, Israel, at U60, beating American
Lindsey Durlacher along the way. In 2010, he came in second in the
Pan American Judo Championships in San Salvador, and won the World Cup Rome, both at U60. He won by beating
Davaadorjiin Tömörkhüleg and
Eisa Majrashi before losing to
Rishod Sobirov. Because Sobirov reached the semifinals, Kitadai was entered into the repechage. In the repechage, he beat
Choi Gwang-Hyeon and then
Elio Verde to win the bronze medal. He carried the medal everywhere. The
IOC issued him a new medal at the request of the
Brazilian Olympic Committee. The medal reportedly contains only $4.71 worth of metal.
2013-2016 In 2013, Kitadai won the
Pan American Judo Championships in San Jose, and the World Military Championships in
Astana, both at U60. At the
2013 Judo Grand Slam Moscow, Kitadai reached the final, winning the silver medal. At the
2014 Judo Grand Slam Tyumen Kitadai won another silver medal. At the
2015 Pan American Games, he won a silver medal in the
60 kg category. At the
2015 World Judo Championships, Kitadai had his best individual appearance at the World Championships, finishing in 5th place. He reached the quarter-finals where he was beaten by world number 2
Ganbatyn Boldbaatar of Mongolia. In the repechage, he beat
Choi In-hyuk, from South Korea, to advance to the bronze medal match. And, in the match that was worth the podium, Kitadai lost to the Japanese
Toru Shishime. In April 2016, Kitadai reached his sixth consecutive championship at the
Pan American Judo Championships. He won gold in the
2011 Guadalaraja,
2012 Montreal,
2013 San José,
2014 Guayaquil,
2015 Edmonton and
2016 Havana editions.
2016 Summer Olympics He participated at the
2016 Olympics, beating
Walide Khyar and
Tobias Englmaier before losing to
Orkhan Safarov. Kitadai obtained one of his biggest individual titles in May 2019. Participating in the
2019 Judo Grand Slam Baku (Grand Slam is the tournament that gives the most points in the judo ranking after the Olympics, the World Championships and the World Masters), he obtained the gold medal, winning five fights.
Retirement Kitadai announced his retirement in March 2022. == Post-career in judo ==