Nicola Fairbrother is one of Great Britain's strongest women fighters. By the time she competed in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic games, she was already European Champion and was looking to takes things to the next level. En route to the final she put in some gritty performances, most notably against former World Champion Arnaud of France. Arnaud, a tough gripper, was trying to pressure Fairbrother onto the red area but the British fighter turned the tables on her opponent and used her momentum against her to take her over for a waza-ari with Sumi gaeshi. As Arnaud tried to rush forwards in the later stages of the fight, Fairbrother bided her time perfectly, scoring a 2nd waza-ari to secure the win. Another Sumi gaeshi waza-ari was enough to see her past Flagothier of Belgium in the semi-final and secure her a place in the final against the Spanish home favourite Blasco.

In the final, Fairbrother was countered early on for a yuko to leave her chasing the match. Then, she looked to have taken Blasco over for at least a yuko with Sumi-gaeshi again, the referee however saw things differently. Not perturbed by this, Fairbrother proceeded to work a strangle on her opponent and looked to be making progress before a questionable matte call. In the end the deficit proved to much to make up and Fairbrother had to settle for a well earned silver.

The following year Fairbrother was back on the world stage, this time at the World Championships in Hamilton Canada. She'd had a good year, winning her second European Championships in Athens, and blitzed her way to the final. En route she produced some flashy judo, including some slick ne-waza against Karitskaja (BLR) and a superb Uchimata ippon against the tough Korean, Jung. In the final she faced the bronze medallist from Barcelona the year before, Chiyori Tateno of Japan. Early in the contest Fairbrother produced yet another flash of brilliance, dropping underneath Tateno with Sode tsuri komi goshi for Waza-ari, although it could easily have been ippon. That score would prove enough to give Fairbrother the World title.

After adding another European gold to her medal collection in 1995, beating Isabelle Fernandes of Spain in the final, Fairbrother retired from competitive judo in late 1999. She now regularly commentates on judo for the BBC and runs the children's judo magazine 'Koka Kids'.