Guillaume MARION, Media365: published on Wednesday, June 23, 2021 at 10:05 p.m.
For AFP, Teddy Riner, the French judoka, spoke about his preparation and his ambitions, where gold will once again aim, while the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo are fast approaching.
In a month’s time, the 2020 Olympic Games will officially kick off in Tokyo. Before this new very important deadline, Teddy Riner took stock. “ I feel good. But afterwards, it’s not all about feeling good, feeling strong, on top. It’s to be good on D-Day. So I am going to take advantage of the month that remains to polish all that, and to deepen what I need to deepen or to resolve. (…) I’m a little greedy so what I would like is to be even better. So I will do everything to be even better and to change some things again and to be without question, without questioning on the day of the Games. (…) I feel stronger than before, yes. Was it beneficial? Yes and no. I changed a lot of things in my staff, that’s what makes me feel better, but I also think that maybe a few months back it would have been also very good the Olympics ”, explained the judoka. French.
“We, the Olympics are our whole life, it’s the top”
“Doubts about the holding of the Olympics? Ah yes. Since 2020, that’s just it. I did not believe in the postponement at the beginning. When I was told that it was going to be postponed, I said “no, no, it’s the Olympics, it cannot be postponed”, and in fact it is. Then when they told us the date I believed in it for a long time, even if we were told “it will be canceled”, I said no. We, the Olympics is our whole life, it is the summit. So there it is a relief. But it was exhausting. Mentally, many of us are worn out, are tired, and have only one thing in mind: to go to the Olympics, to give the best of ourselves and to take a little rest, later entrusted to Riner, with the ‘AFP. (…) Me judoka, us judokas, go to Japan to look for the most beautiful medals … I can tell you that I haven’t slept for a few nights. Because you want to be there and at the same time you have to sleep to recover and be good on training. I’ve been living these Olympics for a while. “
