She salutes at the end of the tatami, as tradition demands at the beginning of a fight, takes ten small steps, responds to the greeting of her opponent and takes his hands, slips between his legs, pushes him, and the colossus collapses on his back, crushed ... by a four-and-a-half-year-old girl. A few quarters of an hour after the eleventh world title of his father, on the very tatami that saw his triumph Saturday in Doha, Ysis Riner managed to bring down the legend of world judo where the Russian Inal Tasoev (who competed under neutral flag and was beaten in the final by waza-ari during extra time), the Romanian Vladut Simionescu, the Polish Kacper Szczurowski, the Mongolian Tsetsentsengel Odkhuu, the Japanese Tatsuru Saito (vice-world champion) and the Tajik Temur Rakhimov (world number 1) failed... Teddy Riner hastened to publish the video of the "feat" on social networks to "close this incredible day"...
The appointment was important for the giant of more than 2 meters. Six years after his last appearance on the stage of a world championship, and especially 440 days before the opening of the Paris Games, he returned to test himself against the best judokas on the planet. As a result, six fights, six victories, and more than 28 minutes accumulated to win a new world title, sixteen years after the first. The best news for the judoka and for the Olympic France team, which left Qatar this Sunday with eight world medals, so those of its bosses Teddy Riner (+ 100 kg) and Clarisse Agbegnenou (- 63 kg), both crowned for their great return and relaunched fully on the road to the Games.
It's important to have gone to the end, to have taken up the challenge and especially to tell myself that even when I'm not in shape I have the condition to tear myself away.
Teddy Riner
"I think it's one of the biggest days of my entire career. No rhythm all day: so, what do we use? The mind, that's all that's left. The brain guides the rest, "said the Guadeloupean, at 60% of his potential before the competition, according to his coach, Franck Chambily.
Injured and absent from the 2022 edition of the Worlds, Teddy Riner had not let his rivals breathe for long by winning the Grand Slam of Paris, last February. And, in Doha, he said he was happy to have managed to impose himself in pain. "It's important to have gone to the end, to have taken up the challenge and especially to tell yourself that even when I'm not in shape I have the condition to tear myself away. The Games are a unique day, so you might as well prepare and put all the ingredients on."
Tired body
The Paris Games, the last meeting, the ultimate challenge. With his 34 springs, the Frenchman is not that old, but his body is tired, marked, chewed by the weight of a career that began in 2006. Olympic champion at the London Games in 2012 and Rio in 2016, he failed in Tokyo in 2021 in his quest for an individual treble, collecting "only" bronze (defeat in the quarterfinals). After having long left doubt about his presence or not at the Paris Games before Tokyo, the Guadeloupean has finally plunged back into the great Olympic bath for his supreme dream. Conclude a legendary domination with a triumph at home. And these World Championships in Doha, which were only a stage on the road to Paris, can reinforce his ambitious major. Join (notably) Marie-José Pérec and Tony Estanguet, the chief organizer of Paris 2024, in the firmament of triple individual gold medallists at the Summer Games. "I work for that, to be unbeatable, to be the best, but the best in all its forms: in sensations, in judo, in mental, in everything. That's good, we managed a big step. Now, a little rest. I need to heal the wounds, and then we'll get back to work very quickly." Young Ysis should not see her father much between now and August 2, 2024, D-Day...