Judo events at the Olympic Games begin this Saturday.
Shirine Boukli, in -48 kg, is responsible for launching the French women's team, which arrives in Tokyo with great ambitions.
Between taulières and young rising young people, the tricolor judokates seem armed for a beautiful harvest, which would take yet another dimension in the country where the sport was born.
From our special correspondent in Tokyo,
In the life of an athlete, there are places like no other, where you have the feeling of being immersed in the history of your sport. And where to win, inevitably, makes you vibrate a little more than elsewhere. These include the Maracana, Madison Square Garden, the Holmenkollen Tremplin or the Silverstone circuit… The Nippon Budokan, where the judo events will take place during these Olympic Games, belongs to this great family.
Its very construction was an event. The Japanese built this martial arts hall for the 1964 Olympics, the very first in history to host judo, in the country where it was born. It is in this prestigious place, a stone's throw from the Imperial Palace, that the French women's team has set itself the task of carrying out a real raid. “It's a place steeped in history. And we are going there to mark it too ”, asserts Larbi Benboudaoud, the boss of French women's judo.
The 1999 world champion (-66 kg) is at the head of a veritable armada.
And again, in some categories, we had to choose between two athletes who could very well have ended up in the final, such as Margaux Pinot and Marie-Eve Gahié, world number 1 and 2 in -70 kg.
It was finally the first who obtained the right to fly to Tokyo thanks to her second place at the European Championships in Lisbon in April.
In other categories?
Only planes.
Amandine Buchard, world number 1, European champion in -52 kg, Madeleine Malonga, world and European champion in -78 kg, and of course the star, the boss, Clarisse Agbegnenou, five-time world champion and Europe in -63 kg, competing on Tuesday to win the only title it lacks after his silver medal at the Rio Games.
A rare density
“We're going to be expected, that's for sure.
But we work calmly, and we assume this status of leaders, poses Benboudaoud.
I prefer that than arriving as an outsider.
After that, it's still the Olympics.
Everyone arrives super prepared, the knife between their teeth.
Even more this year, with an additional year of waiting.
"
To support the taulières, three young people, but already with solid references.
Shirine Boukli (22 years old), already European champion in the -48 kg category and who has just won the Grand Slam in Tel Aviv against the double reigning world champion, Sarah-Léonie Cysique (23 years old), on the box during the last two Europe in -57 kg and especially Romane Dicko (21), already double European champion in +78 kg.
If judo is traditionally a major sport in the French Olympic delegation, the density displayed among girls this year is a rarity to be fully appreciated.
But that does not fall from the sky.
“We've done a lot of work on the women's team in recent years,” boasts the boss.
We rely a lot on group dynamics.
»Larbi Benboudaoud continues:
As I often say, winning is contagious.
We have a big collective, with spearheads that have proven their worth and small young people who arrive behind and who immediately hook the wagon.
Transmission is essential.
"
You just have to see, for example, the way in which Romane Dicko tumbled into the landscape. Senior French champion in 2016 while she is still a cadet and not even a black belt, she was brooded by Emilie Andéol, titled in Rio and who then passed on the baton to her, after being beaten by the impetrant at the championships of France in 2017. “This title [of +78 kg] is with us, it is important to me to keep it. Even more in Japan, it is a huge motivation. Winning here must be crazy! », Imagines the gifted with a flow of voice that betrays his excitement.
For Benboudaoud, Dicko is the symbol of this emulation which is dear to him.
“She has extraordinary physical qualities, but it is through contact with others that she gained self-confidence and the awareness that she was capable of going out for major championships.
She has used others to progress, now she is the motivation for those who stay at home.
"
"The best women's team in the world"
“We have the impression of being the Japanese a few years ago, illustrates Amandine Buchard about this crazy competition. They won everything, all the time, and when one of them lost, we were like "Oh poor man, that must be shame". Us, it's a bit the same now. When you are 5th at the Worlds when you have two golden girlfriends and three others on the podium, you feel a bit of a task. We all want to be better than the other, that's what keeps us going. Today, I think we are the best women's team in the world. "
The recent European champion praises the approach of the new staff appointed after Rio, listening to the feelings of each and granting certain individual freedoms, while establishing a rigorous collective framework.
This is how she was finally allowed to move up the category (from -48 kg to -52 kg) and was able to put an end to her serious diet problems - we will come back to this before her competition on Sunday.
It just seems common sense, but you still have to know how to put it in place.
The secret of Les Bleues is undoubtedly located there, obviously beyond the intrinsic qualities of each.
The Budokan may tremble in advance.
The closed door will unfortunately alter the mysticity of the place a little, but not the faith of the combatants.
Our dossier on the Tokyo Olympics
If there will obviously be no gold at the end of each day - the draws made on Thursday were not tender with some - they have vowed to leave a collective imprint that the Budokan will remember.
“We can't miss each other”, declares Madeleine Malonga.
"It's unthinkable, otherwise we'll stay there," she adds with a burst of laughter.
It gets worse when you're a judokate, but it's not really the vacation they imagine.
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