Seriously injured twice in 2021 and 2023, the Liégeoise returned at full speed so as not to miss Paris after having had to give up in Tokyo. A beautiful story of resilience. Article reserved for subscribers Journalist at the Sports pole By Philippe Vande Weyer Published on 06/21/2024 at 7:01 p.m. Reading time: 2 min
What is sometimes the reason for an Olympic selection? On May 22, when she stepped onto the mat at the Abu Dhabi Judo World Championships, Gabriella Willems, for whom everything was going to be decided in one day, had, she said, “no particular expectations” . “It was probably a self-defense mechanism,” she adds. He absolutely had to finish in the top 5 of the main and last pre-Olympic meeting of the year to climb just enough in the ranking of less than 70 kg and win her ticket on the gong, and the draw had put in her paws, in the third and fourth rounds, the silver and bronze medalists of the last Tokyo Olympics, the Austrian Polleres, “the only one I was afraid of” because she had never managed to beat her in six confrontations, and the Russian Taimazova.
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2024-06-21 17:33:43
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