Judo Champion Charline Van Snick Retires: Leaves Legacy Beyond Medals

There will be no fourth Olympic adventure for Charline Van Snick. Six months after her last competitive outing, during the Budapest Masters in August 2023, the Liégeoise announced this Tuesday noon that she was ending her career, at the age of 33. A career spanning more than fifteen years during which she created the finest record in the history of French-speaking judo with an impressive total of 34 medals in the most significant competitions. Quite a legacy.

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She could have left with the feeling of having accomplished her duty and with complete peace of mind. But, while being legitimately proud of her career, she, on the contrary, clarified that she was stopping high-level sport while being “angry”, visibly undermined by the demands which weighed more and more on her, particularly following to her last interview with Adeps which had set conditions for the maintenance of her (part-time) contract as a high-level sportswoman and “the lack of support from the sports unit of (the) Federation”. Requirements which, she said, put her in danger, to the point of contributing to a burn-out sporty and increasing fatigue. Last ranking world, she only occupied 46th place and was no longer even the first Belgian in the under 52 kg category, where she was ahead of Amber Ryheul (25th). “I wanted to preserve my mental health, but there was also the reality of my age,” she agreed.

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This end of the journey that she would have liked to be different should not overshadow her incredible journey, marked shortly after her senior international debut, by the third place won during the London 2012 Olympic Games in the under 48 kg category. In the British capital, with her rage to win and her extremism which were already her trademarks, with the unfailing efficiency of her work on the ground, she had emerged in the fight for the bronze medal against the Argentina Paula Pareto. “Adrenaline has often been my driving force! »

Although we will no longer see Charline Van Snick on a competitive tatami, she will not leave the world of sport.

If this first great triumph brought her into the Belgian sporting imagination, she assures that it was not the greatest moment of her career. “I also had very good emotions after my two consecutive European titles in 2015 and 2016, which came after a very dark period. »

Two years earlier, in fact, during the Rio 2013 Worlds where she finished third, she had tested positive for cocaine. A result that she was going to fight with the energy that she is known for, going all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, which was going to reinforce the certainty that she had of having been contaminated by someone in the entourage of the Belgian team. As a result, his two-year suspension would be overturned.

“We are not machines”

After the Rio 2016 Games, where she only finished ninth, Charline Van Snick made the decision – which had become inexorable – to “move up” to less than 52 kg. In this category, she would experience more difficulties in performing, however managing to win a bronze medal at the Masters 2018 and at Euro 2020. For her last major Olympic challenge, in Tokyo in 2021, after a fanfare start, a Too brutal a reception during the repechage against the British Chelsie Giles would force her to leave the Kodokan, the temple of judo, on a wheelchair. An exit she didn’t deserve.

Although we will no longer see Charline Van Snick on a competitive tatami, she will not leave the world of sport. The Adeps “Life Project” cell, which manages the dual careers of athletes from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, has welcomed her into its fold since February 1. She will share her experience “so that the post-career is better highlighted” and wishes to “raise awareness of burn-out in high-level sport” through consultations, webinars or judo workshops in schools.

“We are not performance machines but human beings,” she concluded.

The bronze medal won at the London Olympics in 2012. One of Charline Van Snick’s greatest achievements. – ERIC LALMAND/BELGA.

2024-02-06 18:43:40
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