Teddy Riner made shocking judo history on both Friday and Saturday. France needed the help of the heavyweight legend in the team final.
22:47•Updated 22:49
Paris Olympics on channels 26.7.–11.8. Go to the competition website here. You can find the entire program of the games here.
With the French sports legend, the most successful judoka of all time With Teddy Riner35, now has three individual gold medals, two team golds and two individual bronze medals from the Olympics.
No other judoka has been able to achieve such a dazzling Olympic trophy, seven medals.
In the semi-finals, the heavyweight giant Riner and South Korea took the spotlight Joonhwan Lee an encounter in which the French superstar thrashed his usually combative opponent in the 81-kilogram division.
The weight difference between the two was over 60 kilograms on the tatami and the height difference was almost 30 centimeters. The 203-centimeter Riner needed one and a half minutes to win the match.
Korea was tactical against France and spared Riner a bow in the Olympic final on Friday Minjong Kim.
It paid off in the end, as Korea advanced to the Olympic bronze medal by defeating Uzbekistan and Germany via rallying. Kim won both of his matches in the men’s over 90 kg category.
Shock loss to Hifumi Abe – Japan melted down in the final
France was in a class of its own all day in the mixed team competition and won overwhelmingly over Israel, Korea and Italy. Only Japan derailed the host country to the brink after taking a 3-1 lead in the six-man Olympic final.
At that point, Japan had two chances for Olympic gold, but surprisingly, it was rated the best in the world at the moment Hifumi Abe could not defeat France Joan-Benjamin Gabaaand not after that Miku Takaichi neither Clarisse Agbegnenouta.
The miraculous rise of France tied the wins at 3–3, after which a pair of matches had to be drawn, with the overtime winner deciding the Olympic gold.
The 6,000-strong French audience at the Champ de Mars arena started chants of victory when the draw placed Teddy Riner and Tatsuro Saito.
Riner had already defeated the 173-kilogram Saito once in a long overtime match, in a match that lasted more than seven minutes, and the additional match did not bring a new winner either.
Riner had the honor of leading France to the mixed team Olympic gold for the second time after six and a half minutes with his handsome ippon.
In the middle of the wild gold celebrations in France, Japan’s number one judo star, Hifumi Abe, who won the last two Olympic gold medals in the under-66-kilogram category with superior performances, shed tears after losing the gold medal in his own match.
At the end of April, Gaba, who beat Abe, barely beat Finland in the EC bronze medal match Valtteri Olinbut was a huge surprise in Paris after winning Olympic silver in the category under 73 kilograms and also excelling in the team competition.
Japan led the judo medal tally in Paris with three golds and eight medals, but made a big dent compared to the Tokyo Olympics, where it won another nine Olympic golds.
France won the most judo medals, ten, but only two – thanks to the oldest man Teddy Riner. Azerbaijan was also able to win two golds.
Sweden celebrated the first medal in its judo history when the 18-year-old Tara Babulfath won bronze in the 48 kg women’s category. The Olympic medal was the first for the Nordic countries in 40 years.