Just returned from a training camp in Kazakhstan, the ten-time world champion and three-time Olympic champion will present himself on the tatami mats of Bercy on Sunday to launch his year 2023. Around him, a strong French delegation of 56 members including Romane Dicko , the new world champion of +78 kg.

Objective: "To know where I am", explains Riner, injured in an ankle at the end of August and forced to forfeit the Worlds last fall.

"That's what tournaments are, knowing how to position yourself in relation to the competition, having fun and then continuing on this long path of preparation for the Olympic Games. It's important to be confronted."

Because the big meeting of 2024, the Guadeloupean is thinking about it more and more.

"Everything I do today is for the Games," he said.

"It's starting very slowly, but I think that in September when we start the season, it's going to be the beginning and from January, the sprint."

To achieve his goal of a third individual Olympic title, a feat hitherto only achieved in lightweight by the Japanese Tadahiro Nomura (1996, 2000 and 2004), he chose to multiply training camps abroad and welcomes it.

Teddy Riner (blue) against Dutchman Jelle Snippe during the Grand Slam Judo in Budapest, July 10, 2022 © ATTILA KISBENEDEK / AFP/Archives

"I manage to bring down, even against young people who lift much more than me in bodybuilding. So the experience, it is there, and I say to myself + the old man is still there + and that's a pleasure. It's is what makes you want to continue."

Dicko "in Olympic form"

But at 33, his body damaged by more than 15 years of high level, Riner admits to fearing injuries.

"The truth is that when I get on a mat, I'm scared. But now you have to let go," he says.

This weekend in the "cauldron" of Bercy, he will be able to count on other tricolor representatives to carry the hopes of medals, starting with the "little sister" Romane Dicko, revenge after his defeat in the final last year.

"I'm in Olympic form!" Says the 23-year-old judoka, who will inaugurate her new red world champion bib in Paris.

A change of dimension which has not disturbed its recovery, she assures.

"For me, the Worlds was really a stage. I'm already focused on the next Worlds and the Games next year. So mentally, as I tell myself that this is only the beginning, it was easy to return to training."

Frenchwoman Romane Dicko crowned at the World Judo Championships in Tashkent, October 12, 2022 © Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP/Archives

In addition to Riner and Dicko, the French team will look great despite the absences of Clarisse Agbegnenou, Madeleine Malonga and even Sarah-Léonie Cysique for medical reasons.

We will notably follow several Olympic medalists such as Amandine Buchard (-52 kg), Margot Pinot (-60 kg) or Audrey Tcheuméo, five-time winner in Paris in -78 kg.

Also in the running are three Olympic champions from Tokyo: Kosovare Distria Krasniqi (-48 kg), Georgian Lasha Bekauri (-90 kg) and Czech Lukas Krpalek (titled in Japan in +100 kg and back down to -100 kg).

The program:

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Saturday (from 08:00, finals from 17:00)

Women: -48 kg, -52 kg, -57 kg, -63 kg

Men: -60kg, -66kg, -73kg

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Sunday (from 08:00, finals from 17:00)

Women: -70kg, -78kg, +78kg

Men: -81 kg, -90 kg, -100 kg, +100 kg

© 2023 AFP