The only member of the French judo team to have left the last Games without a medal, the 22-year-old took the time to digest her disappointment, to better use it for Paris 2024.
At the Sports Stars in Tignes
Shirine, how does it feel to be taking part in the Sports Stars for the first time?
Shirine Boukli: It’s an event that I find huge, and it’s super cool to be able to be in it. I had already heard of the Stars and seen a few champions go there. It is an honor for me to be here and to have the chance to discover athletes from other disciplines, because it is not easy during the year with our respective schedules. At Insep, I meet some of them, but we never have the time to really sit down and get to know each other. And then the setting in Tignes is just exceptional. I, who don’t know how to ski, take this opportunity to learn.
What is your assessment of your year?
Overall, I think I had a very good year, where everything went very quickly. I am proud of it, even though the Games did not end the way I had hoped. I gained experience, I brought back a European title, I beat girls on the circuit who are very strong and whom I had not beaten before. I also proved things to myself, I brought gold in Grand Slam (in Tel Aviv)… Ditto for the Games, I arrived very late in the race to qualify and I knew take advantage of the postponement of one year to live them. It was really a major goal. Afterwards, the result was not favorable but I learned.
Looking back, how do you explain this early elimination in Tokyo? Too much pressure ?
I think that until we have experienced the Games, it’s impossible to know what it really is. It is not an event that you can prepare without having experienced it once. In view of my year when everything went very quickly, I was overwhelmed … It can happen to any sportswoman. Unfortunately for me, it happened in the wrong place at the wrong time but that’s the game. It’s like that and it will help me, I have no doubt about it. It is not possible to always win.
Before the Games, you told me, when I asked you if you did not feel that everything was going too fast for you, that it was what you wanted, that you were working for it …
Yes of course. I wanted to go to the Games. But as I said, until we have experienced the Games, we cannot say what it is. I could tell myself that it was a competition like any other, it is not true. I couldn’t explain precisely what happened in Tokyo to me, but the fighter in front of me was smarter and she knew me very well. She was not there to do good judo but to win. For my part, I did not know how to re-mobilize myself, even though I thought I would manage to manage it. I did not manage to find my tactical patterns, my lucidity. Now I know it will help me and although it will probably happen to me again, I will do everything to ensure that it does not happen again in the most important moments of my life. I know what to expect now.
Did you have to mourn for Tokyo? Was the post-Games difficult to live?
Yes, I am not going to lie to you, it was hard when everyone in the France team brought back a medal, whether in individual or in teams, and that I am the only one not to have one, it is very painful. I realized that without the medal, you feel left out, and you get on with it all on your own. Somehow, we are no longer in the business, even if I tried to live the Games to the fullest so as not to regret anything. Every day, I went to the dojo to encourage the team, to see everyone. But after Tokyo, it took me a break. I wanted to go back to competition very quickly because deep down I didn’t want to stay with that. Simply, it still needed a cut, whether psychologically or physically. I told the staff that I absolutely wanted to come back for the Paris Tournament in October. I was told ok and I started training on my own, with my club. I did not immediately return to Insep. I needed some freedom for a month, before coming back there at the end of September. Behind, I did the Paris Grand Slam which went well (she finished 3e).
It is above all the psychological aspect that is important at this time …
Yes, you have to succeed in moving on. There is no point in going straight after the Games, without taking a break, for six months later to crack and have to do one. Might as well heal this wound right away. I did it, I took a month for myself, because I had things to forget, I had to find myself a little.
At some point, have you been tempted to question everything? Did you feel illegitimate having been to Tokyo?
No, my place was deserved because I had done everything to go. I had given myself the means, I had fought for. But judo can sometimes be thankless. It’s like that, anyone can win or lose. All the champions of today have one day known setbacks, moments of vagueness. There, I just went through it. It’s up to me to write my own story and to bounce back. I started doing it in Paris and I have to continue, with my mind set on the 2024 Olympics. And by then, there are plenty of great competitions to experience and titles to be fetched. I won’t let go. I must not doubt and continue to move forward. There is no point in staying focused on the past. The life of an athlete is full of things, and I’m going to make sure I have more good than bad.
This year should therefore have made you stronger …
Yes, I sincerely think so. I’m a little more angry, seeing what happened. And I want to take my revenge in a way.
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