The Kazakh square exults, the rest of the ephemeral Grand Palais lets out a general sigh of disappointment. Judoka Luka Mkheidze came close to the first French gold medal of these Olympic Games. But he gave in on a move by his opponent Yeldos Smetov, validated by the referees’ video. He came up against a tough nut to crack.
“Come on Shirine, the fans are here”, and so on in cadence. A little earlier, it is 4:01 p.m., in ten seconds, the ephemeral Grand Palais has transformed into a volcano. All it took was a French judoka to make the 8,900 spectators explode, who neither the mascot Phryge, invited to wiggle in the aisles, nor the excellent contortionist dancer Twist Keita, a sort of “opening act” for the judo finals, had managed to get out of their restraint. This afternoon, people came for the sport. This Saturday, July 27, marks the first day of the judo events, in this hall of the Champ de Mars Arena, a complex of prefabricated buildings built under the nearby gaze of the majestic Eiffel Tower and the Military School. The facilities were harshly criticized by the athletes, a problem of rebound on the tatamis, but everything has been resolved, we are assured.
Waza-ari ! Shirine Boukli, the Frenchwoman entered in the under 48 kilos repechage – she lost in the quarter finals in the morning – has just knocked her Italian opponent onto her shoulder. She scores a point, according to the rules of this sport whose main language remains Japanese, her country of birth. The judokas from the land of the rising sun are applauded considerably, a sign of a large cohort of supporters. In the press gallery, it is a bit like the UN General Assembly, with Kazakh, Mongolian, Taiwanese, Swedish and Paraguayan colleagues. Each has come to follow their national champion, contender for a medal. Judo is a particularly internationalized sport. The four minutes of the fight are up, Shirine Boukli has won the right to fight for a bronze medal, she falls into the arms of her competitor, fair play.
The Academician, the yuko and the waza-ari
Controversy during the women’s semi-final, Tara Babulfath, the Swedish candidate, was disqualified for three severe warnings. The Swedish journalists jumped up and left the room. In the audience, there was no time to talk, the fights followed one after the other without the slightest break, like a fast-food order. No one complained. Luka Mkheidze, the man everyone was waiting for, was soon announced to deafening cheers. The Frenchman won the bronze medal at the previous Olympic Games in Tokyo (Japan), in the under 60 kilos category. This time he tries to do better, his semi-final pits him against the tough Turk Salih Yildiz, under the cap and moustache of Marshal Joffre: the equestrian statue of the glorious general, sculpted by Maxime Real del Sarte and built in 1939 in front of the Ecole Militaire, has been integrated into the hall of the temporary Grand Palais, above the west stand. What would the Academician have thought of these yuko and of these waza-ari ? The mixture produces a baroque shift that Thomas Jolly, the director of the opening ceremony, would perhaps not have objected to.
With its red rectangular tatami, yellow in its center, where the athletes fight, the room looks like an erupting crater. The two judokas circle each other like wasps, and when the Frenchman dodges, everyone exults, it’s a bullfight. The two fighters have similar levels in hand-to-hand combat, but the Turk gives many the impression of trying to get out of the yellow tatami. He gets two shidoswarnings. The third is equivalent to a penalty point. With one minute to go, a wild cheer takes over the Grand Palais, like a wave of euphoria. Luka Mkheidze needs support, he is tired. The referee is not letting himself be fooled, a shido for him, despite the boos, we move on to golden scoresudden death judo style, the first to score wins.
The Frenchman seems more than ever on the defensive, a second shido for him, the next one is synonymous with elimination. But here he is, launching a leg movement, not the most delicate of the fight, and in two times, the Turk gives in to the shoulder. The referee’s outstretched arm on the side, waza-ariand it’s madness in the stands. We’re going to see a fight for the gold medal, perhaps the first French victory of these Olympic Games. Mkheidze will face the formidable Kazakh Yeldos Smetov, easy winner of the Spaniard Francisco Garrigos by ippon – throwing him to the ground on his back, the supreme blow in judo.
The dancers of a ballet
Shirine Boukli, for her part, wants her bronze medal. She begins her fight hard against the Spaniard Laura Martinez Abelenda, who quickly receives a shido. Then two. The two judokas spin around each other like ballet dancers. The Frenchwoman has the advantage of the attack but finds no opening. When Martinez Abelenda wraps her leg around her opponent’s, the Marseillaise launched a few seconds earlier is interrupted. But Boukli holds on, and sudden death kicks in. When she launches an attack and the Spaniard appears to fall strangely, the referee calls for a video call. And it is a standardized voice from backstage that announces that Shirine Boukli has indeed scored a waza-ari.
Suddenly, everything stops. The Frenchwoman breaks through the armor, jubilant. The embrace with her coach gives a glimpse of the sacrifices accepted to achieve this medal. The first trinket for France. The spectators, who came exactly for this pleasure, cheer, chaining together songs in praise of the judoka. The Frenchwoman has time to begin a mini-triumphant tour of the room before being asked to let the program continue. The gold medal, it, is won a few moments later by the Japanese Natsumi Tsunoda, the same one who floored Boukli at the end of the morning.
Luka Mkheidze and his waspish movements are soon rushing for the men’s final, with David Guetta in the background. Yeldos Smetov also won bronze in Tokyo and he went through the day like a boss, stringing together several easy victories. He has already been world champion, unlike the Frenchman. Surprise, it is the Tricolore who is the most enterprising, several attacks full of panache, we are not at fencing, but there is Cyrano in these lively and brutal leg throws. We believe several times in the feat. Until this unclear response from the Kazakh. Did the Frenchman give in? A few seconds of rumor, and the decision, terrible for the French camp. There is one minute left but Luka Mkheidze will not recover. The gold medal escapes him, his dream ends without its happy conclusion. All that remains is the silver, and the memory of a great day. There are fifteen left in these Paris Olympics.