Charlee Minkin


Charlee Minkin is an American Olympic judoka. She won three national titles, and won the silver medal in the women's half lightweight division at the 2003 Pan American Games. In 2011 she won the gold medal in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu at the IBJJF Pan Am Championships.

Early and personal life

Minkin was born in Half Moon Bay, California. She is Jewish, was bat mitzvah, and attended Congregation Beth Israel-Judea in San Francisco. Her mother is Carolyn Minkin, her father, former Green Beret Stephen Minkin, died in a plane crash when she was five years old, and she has three siblings, Zisa, Ben, and Davina. She attended Brandeis Hillel Day School in San Francisco. She then attended the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.

Judo career

Minkin has been coached by Ed Liddie.
In 1998 she won the silver medal in the Pan American U20 Championships and five continental titles.
Minkin won the silver medal in the women's half lightweight division at the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
She represented her native country at the age of 22 at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Women's 52 kg in Athens, Greece.

Career after judo

In 2005, she began a career as a personal trainer. In 2007, Minkin began working as a police agent for the Lakewood, Colorado, Police Department. In 2009, she began to train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and won the gold medal at the 2011 IBJJF Pan Am Championships.