This final, the revenge that France and Japan had been dreaming of for three years, when the Blues won at the Tokyo Budokan in the “temple” of Japanese judo in the final of the 2021 Olympics, offered a scenario that even the greatest Hollywood directors cannot dream of.
2024 Olympics – Judo: Who can beat Teddy Riner?
“Yesterday I made my dream come true, today we made our dream come true. We all came back together,” reacted “Super-Teddy” in the heat of the moment.
In this competition which pits two teams of six judokas, three women and three men, against each other, Japan initially led three victories to one, with only Riner winning his fight against Tatsuru Saito, the great hope of Japanese judo, who missed out on his Paris Games.
“I had to equalize”
All Japan had to do was win one match to atone for the affront suffered in Tokyo and snatch the gold from the French. But Joan-Benjamin Gaba (-73 kg), after more than 8 min 50 (including 4 min 50 of overtime) of an incredibly intense fight, scored a perfect ippon on the new Olympic champion in the -66 kg category, Hifumi Abe, making the Arena Champ-de-Mars explode. The fight had changed its soul.
The next feat was the work of Clarisse Agbégnénou, who had cried all the tears in her body after missing out on individual gold (bronze in -63 kg).
She also went into overtime against Miku Takaichi, for more than three minutes, and ended up winning by waza-ari, the smallest of advantages, after a clear fight, carried by the Marseillaise a capella and the fervor of a room in fusion.
2024 Olympics – judo: Teddy Riner lives up to his legendary status and wins a 4th Olympic gold medal
“That’s what a team is, counting on each other, I had to equalize,” she said, “it was a relay race, it was incredible.”
With a tie of three all, the rules provide that a category is drawn at random, for a decisive fight played to the “golden score”: the first to score a point wins.
The audience held its breath as it waited to see the category chosen on the giant screens. And it roared with joy when the number “+90” was displayed. Fate had chosen Teddy Riner. In other words, he had chosen France.
Absolute happiness
The national hero, who probably didn’t sleep much after his title, and who already had three fights behind him this Saturday (all won), didn’t fail. Faced with a disoriented Saito, who was on four consecutive defeats in Paris (two in the heavyweights followed by two in the team), Riner scored an ippon of which he has a secret. Victory. Gold medal. Absolute happiness.
With this title, French judo ends its Olympic harvest with ten medals, the objective set before the Games by the Federation, including two gold, below the four or five hoped for.
Individually, only Teddy Riner lived up to his role as favourite. Others, highly anticipated, missed their chance, like Luka Mkheidze, beaten in the -60 kg final, Clarisse Agbégnénou (-63 kg) or Romane Dicko (+78 kg), bronze medallists when they had come for the title.
But on Saturday evening, it was not yet time to take stock, while the Blues of judo were communing with their supporters at the Arena Champ-de-Mars, a temporary structure where a page of eternity was nevertheless written.
2024-08-04 00:17:59
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