Judo: Teddy Riner, a monster (of victories) in Paris, the king of tatami mats takes place six months before the Olympic Games

Invincible teddy Riner, qui remporte le Grand Slam de Paris pour la huitième fois. MAXPPP – Thierry Larret

Neuf mois après son titre de champion du monde, Teddy Riner a collectionné un nouveau titre au Grand Slam de Paris. Imbattable.   

Two-time Olympic heavyweight champion Teddy Riner won the Paris tournament for the eighth time on Sunday, a record that perfectly kicks off his year less than six months before the Olympic Games.

The 34-year-old Frenchman, who won in the final against the South Korean Kim Min-jong, made his return to the tatamis in individual competition, nine months after his eleventh world champion title in Doha , in Qatar.

The coast is clear

In six months, on August 2, Riner could add a third individual coronation to an already extraordinary record. In the meantime, he fulfilled his contract in front of his thousands of fans at Bercy, where he was the favorite, and scored important points in the Olympic rankings with a view to being seeded at the Olympics.

The way was clear for the French champion. His main potential opponents at the Games, like the Japanese Tatsuru Saito or the Russians Inal Tasoev, with whom he shared the gold medal at the 2023 Worlds, or Tamerlan Bashaev, against whom he lost at the Tokyo Games in 2021, were not present in Paris.

The Tajik Temur Rakhimov, current world No.1, or the Finnish Martti Puumalainen, European champion in Montpellier in the absence of Riner, were not not aligned either.

Riner got scared

The star still had to work hard, notably in the semi-final against 25-year-old Uzbek Alisher Yusupov, current 3rd in the world and bronze medalist at the 2023 Worlds.

Riner got scared, a time virtually eliminated before the Uzbek ippon was demoted to a single point (waza-ari) after video refereeing. The Frenchman, trailing, ended up winning by ippon.

In the final, against the South Korean whom he faced for the first time, Riner had his only overtime fight of the day. Against this left-hander who was smaller than him, a profile he feared, Riner finally won after 24 additional seconds.

💪🇫🇷 La huitième victoire de Teddy Riner au #ParisGrandSlam ! #lequipeJUDO pic.twitter.com/3aJx1xUBtQ

— L'ÉQUIPE (@lequipe) February 4, 2024

On the road to a 3rd Olympic title…

Riner started the day by taking out the Kazakh Galymzhan Krikbay, disqualified after three penalties in 2 min 28, then the South Korean Jaegu Youn, mowed down in just 42 seconds. In the quarter, he pinned the 22-year-old German Losseni Kone to the ground after 2 min 32.

At the Arena Champ de Mars this summer, the Frenchman, titled in 2012 then 2016, will aim for a third individual Olympic title, a feat until now only achieved in lightweight by the Japanese Tadahiro Nomura (1996, 2000 and 2004). Riner also won team gold in 2021.