The three-time Olympic champion and 11-time world champion Teddy Riner re-carved his credential in the golden history of judo when he became the top winner of the Grand Slam in Paris last Sunday at the Accor Arena in Bercy, one of the most prestigious on the circuit, with eight victories.
In his first individual participation since the Doha World Cup in May 2023 and 173 days before the start of the Olympic Games to be held in his country, the legendary judoka capitalized on the absences of the ranking leaders - Temur Rakhimov (1st) and Inal Tasoev (2nd) - and seized the +100kg test by beating the Korean Minjong Kim (9th) with a waza-ari, a golden technique that earned him the record feat in the second 24 of addition.
The title in the second competition of the year organized by the International Judo Federation (IJF) allowed him to score valuable points in the classification for Paris 2024, to close on June 23. If the process does not finish among the top 17 in the ranking - the competition began in 13th place - France could grant it the quota assigned to it as the host country.
After a difficult coronation, in which he suffered two penalties in the quarterfinals and a waza-ari previously mistakenly identified as an ippon in the semifinal, Riner stressed that he is not “in his best form”, although he is in “a good one”, he expressed his joy at the unprecedented milestone achieved and throbbed the Olympic Games: “Having them at home motivates me. It’s magical and brings a lot of emotion. There’s also going to be a lot of pressure,” he said.
The biggest challenge faced by the 34-year-old native of Guadalupe is to recover the Olympic gold medal in his category, which was elusive in Tokyo 2020 after falling in the semifinals to the Czech Lukas Krpalek. In an interview given in 2022, the flag bearer in Rio 2016 described his performance in Paris 2024 as the “apotheosis” of his career, in which he will seek to put the finishing touch in front of his family and friends at the Champs de Mars Arena. The 14 judo events will take place between July 27 and August 3.
On Saturday and also as a local, Clarisse Agbegnenou had imposed the hierarchy expressed by her two Olympic and six world trophies in the -63 kg, sealing her seventh victory in the first Grand Slam of the season and contributing to the six gold medals with which France led the final medal table ahead of Japan (three) and Germany (two). For one day, the other great star of French judo had equaled the dominant figure that Riner later eclipsed.
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