Luka Mkheidze won the bronze medal in judo on Saturday in the -60kg category.
Georgian by birth, the hero of the day landed at 12 in France, where his parents obtained the status of political refugees.
This is the first time since 2004 that France has won a medal at the start of the Olympic Games.
From our special correspondent in Tokyo,
To freak out, we could tell you it's a job.
That a first medal is smelled, it is sniffed, it can be guessed, and that after all we are paid for it.
The truth ?
We went where the organizers of these pandemic Games wanted to send us.
Banco the caravan, thanks to Luka Meikheidze.
And what a medal, by the way.
Of those that we dream of every day to tell to close the valves of the stupid and wicked nationalisms that France can sometimes produce.
A smuggler to return to France
The history of the tricolor judoka, therefore. Born in Georgia, whom his parents fled during the Second South Ossetian War to reach Poland, where they were refused political asylum. The following ? A smuggler who ransomed the fortune of a lifetime, cross roads, and an arrival in Villeneuve Saint-Georges, with a letter translated by "great people" in Poland saying roughly: "My name is Luka, my name is Luka. I am 12 years old and I want to do judo at your place ”.
The boy is 25, today, and he kept this letter preciously: “This day, it represents years of work, all these things that I lived in my life, these sacrifices which pay, even if all the world makes sacrifices ”.
He stares at his bronze metal with enamored eyes: “I still cannot realize what I have done.
It impresses me so much this medal, I think I will spend a lot of time looking at it to learn it by heart, limit ”.
His parents, regularized but not yet naturalized, will wait a little longer for his phone call: "I have to calm down before calling them, I'm a little lost there, I think".
"I will learn this medal by heart"
It is true that we thought we lost it a short time after this dantesque semi-final lost after five minutes to defend as we defend each breath when the breath runs out. Salvation came from friends, who could be heard for a thousand despite the empty room. "Grit your teeth, attack, get on it". Shirine Boukli, beaten in opening, Alex Clerget, the big mate, Orlando Cazorla, the sparring, all three gave their vocal cords at the Japanese science museum, perched a few meters from the legendary Budokan in Tokyo. “We all went to see him in the warm-up room, one by one, to re-mobilize him. Sometimes we had the feeling that he was going to crack but we pushed behind him to the end ”.
In the third shido (penalty) addressed to Kim during the fight for bronze, it is the explosion in the stands and in the head of Meikhidze, who struggles to hold back tears.
"It's a crazy thing, we do not realize, like him I think, continues Orlando, who spent his preparation with him.
Everyone cried, the girls cried, I think I cried.
He's such a nice boy, I'm too happy for him ”.
The first warm-up, before a resounding revenge against the Spanish European champion Garrigos, smelled like the sun of Austerlitz: “He has been doing well since the start of preparation, already in the acclimatization course.
Before Garrigos, I told him "do it, go get her".
It's amazing what happens to him ”.
"Everyone cried"
In an impeccably ironed suit, his trainer Daniel Fernandez, who nevertheless gave of himself on the edge of the tatami mat, has modest happiness.
“It's an extraordinary day for Luka who comes to reward his daily commitment.
The history of judoka is beautiful and the history of man is beautiful.
He deserves everything that happens to him.
It was an unforgettable day for him for his family for his loved ones, just for that I am happy for him ”.
More than us?
Impossible.
Sport
To read also: Olympic Games Tokyo 2021: In judo as in basketball, Emmanuel Macron will not have brought luck to the Blues
Olympic Games
Japan
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Judo
Tokyo Olympics 2021