Teddy Riner deals with the pressure and captures best of three Olympic titles

What an incredible day for judo with the legendary Teddy Riner. The dream has come true: gold for the towering Frenchman, who withstood immense pressure from the French public and won his third Olympic title in a long career.

His journey began in 2008 at the Beijing Games, where the young Riner, already a world champion, won bronze. He claimed gold in London and repeated this feat in 2016. However, in Tokyo during the unusual (corona) games, he lost in the quarterfinals to Russian Bashaev but won bronze through repechage. With the French team, he secured an additional gold medal by defeating Japan in their home ground at the Kodokan.

Today, in the Champs-de-Mars Arena, the most beautiful moments of his career were made as Riner added his third title, matching the record of Japanese judoka Tadahiro Nomura, who had held the record of three individual titles alone for so long. Now a TV commentator, Nomura is happy to share this record. Riner finally gave France the judo gold that 13 other teammates couldn't secure, proving once again that the sport-overarching judo hero from Paris could shoulder the nation's hopes.

Under the watchful eye and cheers of French President Macron, the champion was celebrated after his third gold medal shone around his neck. In the final, Riner defeated the Korean Kim Min-Jong, the current world champion who Riner did not face in that competition. This time, Riner's preparation was more intense, participating in more matches, which paid off. Weighing over 141 kilograms, he executed a powerful Harai Goshi that sent the Korean airborne, thrilling the crowd in the arena.

In the semifinals, Riner defeated Temur Rakhimov from Uzbekistan, who won bronze, and in the quarterfinals, he overwhelmed Guram Tushishvili. After his ippon loss, Tushishvili struggled with his emotions and could not accept the defeat gracefully, leading to his disqualification from potential repechage and harming his Georgian team's chances in the team event. In Riner's opening match after a bye in the first round, he tactically overcame Magomedarov (UAE) without much effort.

France is now looking forward to the team competition and a possible showdown with Japan, which tops the medal table with three golds—six fewer than at the 2021 Tokyo Games. Thanks to Big Teddy, France has secured the most significant of its nine medals.

STATISTICS

Teddy RINER (FRA) won his fourth gold medal and sixth Olympic medal in men’s judo by winning the heavyweight (+100 kg) division.

This was the sixth gold medal and 10th medal in this division for France, taking them to the top of the medal table ahead of Japan, also with 10 medals, but five gold medals.

In the gold medal match RINER triumphed by ippon with harai-goshi over KIM Minjong (KOR).

This was RINER’s third victory in this division, also winning in 2012 and 2016. At Tokyo 2020, he won gold in the mixed team and bronze in this event.

RINER now has the most medals in Olympic judo (6), one ahead of Japan’s TAMURA-TANI Ryoko.

The bronze medal match winners were Temur RAKHIMOV (TJK) and Alisher YUSUPOV (UZB). They were the first medals in this event for their NOCs.