Tokyo (AFP)

There is no better place to enter the legend: Friday at Nippon Budokan, the temple of Japanese judo, Teddy Riner will try to win a third consecutive Olympic title, a rare feat and a quest thwarted by a worrying knee injury .

Fragile is not really the adjective that comes to mind when describing Teddy Riner, his two Olympic titles, his 10 world crowns, his 2.03 m and his approximately 140 kg, of muscles when he is in a competition configuration.

And yet, today there is a little doubt when seeing the Guadeloupe enter the Olympic Games, in pursuit of a third consecutive title, a feat achieved so far by the only Tadahiro Nomura, crowned among the lightweight in 1996, 2000 and 2004.

This doubt, this invisible enemy more formidable perhaps than the adversaries of value that Riner could cross in his path, it is the cruciate ligament of his left knee.

- Real tile -

For months, the secret was well kept.

From the end of February, when his knee gave way during a training session in Morocco, to last week, when the truth was revealed in a documentary broadcast by France Télévisions, where we see the champion fall and squeal.

"At that point, I thought I had my cruciate (ligaments) done ... I thought I was going to take seven months and it was screwed up. It's going so fast, I'm like fucking this c 'is serious, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, "he told AFP.

# photo1

Eventually, the injury healed faster than diagnosed, but Riner was nonetheless deprived of judo for "two good months", not exactly ideal as his only competition of the year was last month. January and get ready to face the best heavyweights on the planet.

"Of course, from time to time, my knee hurts, but that does not prevent me from training, it does not prevent me from going after myself", yet assured the Guadeloupe.

All the same, the revelation of this real tile raises questions.

Why did you talk about it?

And why so close to the Olympics?

Does the champion want to prepare the observers for a possible failure, he who has hardly ever known?

On the contrary, is he sure of himself and does he have fun playing with the psyche of his rivals by injecting a little extra doubt into their brains?

- Table raised -

In normal times, this would probably not have been essential as the French dominate his subject.

His two defeats of the year 2020, the first for 10 years and after a series of more than 150 successes in a row, came as a reminder that invincibility did not exist, but Riner marked the blow by winning in January his back-to-school tournament at the Doha Masters.

In Tokyo, his picture will not be easy, with five fights until the gold medal.

After a first round a priori manageable against the Austrian Stephan Hegyi (22), bronze medalist at the European Championships in 2018, Riner could indeed find the Israeli Or Sasson, who had been his victim in the semifinals of the JO-2016 in Rio, before finally taking bronze.

# photo2

In the quarter-finals, Riner could then face Russian Tamerlan Bashaev, No. 1 in the world rankings, a small size likely to poison his life.

Georgian Guram Tushishvili, world champion in 2018, is also in the Frenchman's table, while Japanese Hisayoshi Harasawa (world No.2), whom Riner had beaten in the final in Rio, is on the other side. .

The knee will always be there, like a threat from within.

If he holds, the third gold will not be far.

© 2021 AFP