Paris (AFP)

Teddy Riner, whom the coronavirus crisis has not deflected from his ambition to conquer a third historic Olympic coronation in Tokyo, acknowledges in an interview with AFP that his defeat at the Paris tournament in early February, his first since nearly ten years, served him as "electroshock".

From his gradual return to training at the end of 2018 after a sabbatical year, to the confinement and postponement of the Olympic Games-2020 to the summer of 2021, passing through his frustrated resumption of competition, which traces a documentary entitled "Teddy" broadcast on Monday evening on France 3, the double Olympic champion in heavyweight and tenfold world champion (8 times in +100 kg and 2 in all categories) looks back on the period which he considers "the most difficult of (his) career" .

Q: What is your view on the past eighteen months?

A: "Clearly, it was the most difficult year of my career, with everything that happened to me, injuries (broken rib and hernia in the lower abdomen at the end of 2019, editor's note), defeat (in the 3rd round of the Paris tournament, against the Japanese Kokoro Kageura), confinement ... The fact also that the category changes: it is not the same adversaries that I have known, they are getting younger and younger in addition to speed. That's also the game, the competition, the high level, it's adapting. "

Q: The physical work was considerable ...

A: "When I see on the images the build that I had developed, wow ... I understand why my trainers said to me: + You have to give yourself time, you have to lose weight, in physical preparation, you will not be able touch up your + max + when you go back down (in weight), in judo, you're slower for that ... + I felt like I was heavy, but I couldn't see myself. If I had seen myself, on the food, all that, I would have made more decisions much sooner ... "

Q: Looking back, do you think it would have been better not to fight in Paris?

A: "Yes, but I don't regret it. I shouldn't have gone there because I didn't want to go there. But I went there, and it's very good. It's bad for good It allows me to use this defeat to prepare well for the Olympic Games. If I want to bring back this gold medal, I have no room for error, so I might as well use this information and this failure to be better in the future. "

Q: What effect did this defeat have?

A: "It was an electric shock that allowed me to regulate everything, the mind, the food, the physical preparation and my judo. To be Olympic champion once again in Tokyo, you have to be good in all sectors , even extremely good. If I want this medal, it will have to be even better than in previous years. "

Q: Your trainer Franck Chambily did not expect such studious confinement from you. And you ?

A: "Even me, no! I think it's a whole, it's the electroshock of Paris, the fact that in my head there was the Olympic Games. And afterwards, we have to bounce back from this failure , but also in relation to the postponement of the Olympic Games. We have to adapt, that's what I keep doing. "

Q: Do you finally consider postponing the Olympic Games as bad for good?

A: "Yes and no. When the pandemic arrived, I was starting to be very well, I had a big, big period of training, physical preparation and everything, and I was going to climb to my best level Now you have to use everything. You have to go back to jump better, you have to take your pain in patience and say to yourself you have more time available to you, take it and become better. No matter what, it only feels good to train. "

Q: We haven't seen you so physically fit for a long time ... The key now is consistency?

A: "It's been a while, yes! Consistency is the key word, for the moment I'm holding on, I'm enjoying myself. Clearly, that's what will make this medal but in 2021, I am convinced. There, (the objective) is to train hard - Why? I don't know, it's true that we are on stand-by with this virus - ( but it is to) keep a very good level, so that when we are going to attack again, there is almost nothing (more) to do, apart from three months of intensive preparation just before the Olympics to be extremely good . "

Interview by Elodie SOINARD

© 2020 AFP