After his defeat in the quarter-finals in Tokyo, Teddy Riner is in Paris on Friday August 2 to pick up the golden thread of his Olympic history, win a third individual gold medal and become the “undisputed record holder” in judo.
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He started these Games at home by lighting the Olympic cauldron. At 35, he now has the opportunity to set the Arena Champ-de-Mars alight and an entire judo country, which even dreams of a double in the event of victory by Romane Dickoworld No. 1 in +78 kg.
If Dicko, 24, bronze medalist in Tokyo and 2022 world champion, has the potential to claim the supreme title, Riner has an even more ambitious leitmotif: “to become the undisputed record holder of his sport, and to silence as many mouths as possible”.
In 2021, in the Nippon Budokan, the legendary lair of Tokyo judo, Riner missed a first opportunity, beaten by the Russian Tamerlan Bashaev and consoling himself with bronze. Titled by mixed teams against Japan the following day, the 35-year-old Frenchman can once and for all establish himself as the greatest judoka in history.
” Better than before »
Because if he were to win again, he would become the first judoka to achieve the Olympic triple in the premier category. Only the Japanese super-lightweight Tadahiro Nomura achieved this feat in Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004.
Riner also already has ” baggage full of gold “, according to his expression, with eleven world champion titles and two other Olympic medals, bronze (2008, 2021). The 2.03 m and 140 kg ogre is still hungry and intends to ” to be and become even more “the best French athlete in history,” he dared to say to AFP before the Olympics.
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In this quest, the icon is said to be “ better than before ” on all points. ” The secret is desire already, he confides. Desire is what has allowed me to get through the different stages of my life each time. ” Riner has changed several things in his preparation and strategy in recent years. He has increased his training abroad, in Japan, Brazil and Kazakhstan, and has just changed his personal trainer.
For several competitions, it is no longer Franck Chambily, his long-time coach who has now retired, who sits during the champion’s fights, but Christian Chaumont, the coach from his years at Levallois Sporting Club (2009-2017) before he joined PSG.
” I go through time »
Unseeded in 2021, he paid for this mistake in the quarter-finals against the world No. 1. This time, he did what was necessary to be exempted from the first round. In the 2nd, he will start against the Emirati Magomedomar Magomedomarov or the Algerian Mohamed El Mehdi Lili.
On the road to the title, the programme should gradually get tougher with the Georgian Guram Tushishvili, reigning Olympic vice-champion, in the quarter-finals, then the Uzbek Alisher Yusupov in the semi-finals.
If he reaches the final, another tough opponent would be waiting for him, whether it be the Korean 2024 world champion Kim Min-jong, the Japanese Tatsuru Saito or the Czech Lukas Krpalek, reigning Olympic champion and already champion at Rio 2016 in -100 kg.
Seeing the 23-year-old Korean or the 22-year-old Japanese boy appear reminds him of his youth: “ When I arrived at the first championships (European and World) in 2006-2007, I was one of the youngest “, he recalls while ” Today it is true that I am going through time, I feel like I am the little old man “.
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