In a training session at the Montpellier Creps with the French judo team, the young Insep athlete (21), Maxime-Gaël Ngayap Hambou, dreams of gold for these upcoming continental dates. And those of his first Senior World Championships in Tashkent in Uzbekistan (from October 6 to 13). With also, in a corner of his head, the Olympic title in Paris.
“I want to become a world champion and an Olympic champion.” Maxime-Gaël Ngayap Hambou, in training at Creps de Montpellier with the French judo team, is not afraid to show his ambitions. But the young man (21 years old) does not evoke there a childish wish written on a sheet of paper pasted on the walls of his room. No, these are these ambitions for the next two years. That’s all.
The young judoka from Insep, who he joined in 2018, will compete in Tashkent in Uzbekistan (October 6-13) in his first senior world championships and will seek gold. “If I win a medal, all the better, but I want the most beautiful metal,” he says. Anything can happen.” A great confidence in him that is not a sign of arrogance. But the fruit of a lot of work and a first Grand Slam medal. He was bronze in Tbilisi (Georgia) in June.
Great performance in the World Cup
to embark on Paris-2024
In the third year of Staps, Ngayap Hambou knows that, somewhere, part of his future is at stake in this competition. “These World Cups are an opportunity for me to score points for Paris-2024,” he says. If he is promising, it is not guaranteed that he will compete in the next Olympic Games, where countries can only field one athlete per category.
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And in his, the -90 kg, there is a man of weight: Axel Clerget. Olympic team champion in Tokyo (2020) and two-time individual bronze medalist at the World Cup (2018 and 2019), he is the boss of the category in France. “He is someone who has given me a lot since my first year at Insep, explains Ngayap Hambou. There is a healthy competition between us.”
The young man, who also takes advantage of his elder’s injury to express his talent to the fullest, thus begins the long road that should lead him to the Olympic title via world gold. A career that, if everything goes according to plan, could end at 23.
But Ngayap Hambou doesn’t hear it that way. “If I am world champion this year and Olympic champion in two years, I want to keep progressing and always look for more.” A nugget who wants to collect gold medals.
