Teddy Riner does not have the most discreet personality or stature in French sport, neither in the media nor in his sleep.
At 2.04m and around 150kg, Teddy Riner is a mountain of muscles. Eleven times world champion, triple Olympic champion, the 35-year-old from Guadeloupe has broken all records in the over 100kg category since his first title in 2007. Since the start of his career, he has a total of 268 victories for only twelve defeats, i.e. a percentage of 95.6% of victories.
Selected for his fifth Olympic Games, he went for a fourth gold medal, the third in individual after 2012 and 2016 on the occasion of these Paris Olympics. He will also defend the title of the French team in team won in Tokyo in 2021 against the Japanese.
During his early professional years, Teddy Riner regularly shared a room during competitions with judoka Ugo Legrand. The latter, born the same year as Riner, won three medals at the world championships and an Olympic bronze medal in London, in his -73 kg category.
Both trained at Insep, Teddy Riner and Ugo Legrand developed a frank friendship, even if the latter retired quite early, in 2015. He explains in particular in an interview with The Team having “wanted to stop judo after the London Olympics”. “I was 23 years old, I had achieved a childhood dream. I didn’t want to persist forever in a sport and try to achieve performances.”
All these years at INSEP and in preparation with the French team or during major competitions alongside Teddy Riner give Ugo Legrand many anecdotes to tell about the eleven-time world champion. He notably recounted that Teddy Riner was not the quietest of sleepers.
“He’s a huge snorer,” confides the former specialist in the under 73 kg category and Riner’s regular roommate. “And when you whistle to try to silence him, it’s worse, it’s awful, he sounds like an angry bear.” Between his 2.04m and this noisy tendency in his sleep, Teddy Riner must not be the most discreet of roommates.