STORY – Led by Clarisse Agbegnenou, double Olympic champion and flag bearer of the French delegation, the French judokas shone in the land of judo.
Correspondent
Impossible was not French. There are achievements in team sports that mark a life. In football, winning at the Maracana, Rio, against Brazil for example. Or in rugby, to bring down the colossi of New Zealand in their kingdom of Eden Park. It is this type of extraordinary feat that the French mixed judo team achieved on Saturday at Budokan, considered the world temple of the discipline. Bringing the Japanese to one knee – strong in their 9 individual Olympic titles gleaned during the week – here, in the final of the team event, seemed unthinkable.
But, over four successes in five fights, Clarisse Agbegnenou and her partners have made the impossible possible. Thus offering their captain, Teddy Riner, his third Olympic title. Not the one he had come to seek, but his joy, communicative, spoke more than words about his pride to have succeeded in Tokyo anyway.
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