French Judo Aims for Glory: Mixed Team Competition Set to Conclude Successful Paris Olympics

French judokas Romane Dicko (left) and Teddy Riner with other French athletes during the opening ceremony of the Games in Paris, July 26, 2024. FRANCK FIFE / AFP

French judo is looking to end a productive Parisian Olympic week on a high note: nine individual medals have already been won out of the ten expected in total, including the title offered by Teddy Riner (+100 kg). This is better than in Tokyo in the summer of 2021, where the harvest stopped at eight podiums. The only downside: the highly anticipated French women did not manage to win gold despite their five medals (all bronze) out of a possible seven. On Saturday, August 3, the Tricolores have the opportunity to add a new reward, with the mixed team event, of which they are the defending champions.

The Arena Champs-de-Mars is not the Budokan, where the Blues overthrew Japan three years ago, carried by an impressive Clarisse Agbégnénou (under 63 kg) and a solid Teddy Riner. But the venerable Japanese dojo rang hollow, the events taking place behind closed doors, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This time, the atmosphere in this temporary infrastructure specially built for the Paris Games promises to be volcanic. Enough to carry the French just a few hours after the Guadeloupean’s coronation? The latter does not really have time to savor his third Olympic title: “Unfortunately, we’ll have to get back into it quickly and go get a nice medal for our friends.”he said Friday evening.

The Japanese advance as the number 1 seed, the Tricolores are 2nd. The two favorites will only be able to face each other in the final if neither falls prematurely against tough nations like Italy, Georgia, Uzbekistan or South Korea.

Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers In its native Japan, judo still struggles with its martial reputation

Add to your selections

The team competition is held in six bouts, with a different distribution of weight categories compared to the individual events: – 57 kg, – 70 kg and + 70 kg for women, – 73 kg, – 90 kg and + 90 kg for men. In the event of a three-way tie, one of the categories is drawn again for a seventh decisive bout.

“Keeping this title would be magical”

Beaten on Tuesday in the semi-final by the Slovenian Andreja Leski, but adorned with bronze, Clarisse Agbégnénou announced her desire to fight as a team: ” I’ll take the time tomorrow [mercredi] to get all my emotions out and I’m getting back to it to go get this beautiful medal.”

A few months before the Olympics, the woman, who could still fight against a judoka heavier than her, spoke about the importance of this event to Monde : “It’s a different medal but so beautiful. We divide the stress felt during the individual championships. To retain this title would be magical.”

You have 49.04% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.

2024-08-03 07:35:13
#French #team #aims #mixed #team #podium #complete #successful #Games