After bringing France its first medal at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday, July 24, judoka Luka Mkheidze could not believe it and never took his eyes off his medal: "It impresses me. I will still spend a lot of time. time to look at it, I think. I want to learn it by heart. "

A joy all the more appreciable as the young man has an extraordinary journey behind him.

Born in Tbilisi in Georgia, arrived in France as a refugee after a journey through Belarus and Poland, naturalized in 2015, the judoka Luka Mkheidze made a long journey, also passing through Le Havre and the 19th arrondissement of Paris.

This bronze won at Nippon Budokan, the temple of Japanese judo, undoubtedly owes a lot to the talents of translators of "wonderful people" met by Luka Mkheidze and his family in Poland, after having fled Georgia in 2009 in the wake of the second conflict in South Ossetia.

They translated into French a letter written by young Luka.

This famous letter followed him to France, where he and his family arrived in 2010 when Poland refused them the status of political refugees.

And Luka had it in hand when, with his father, he knocked on the door of Judo Club Bolivar, in the northeast of Paris.

"This is where Teddy Riner started judo. But it's a coincidence, I did not even know that Teddy had been there," said the Olympic medalist in the mixed zone, after dominating the Korean Kim Won- jin for the golden score in the bronze medal fight.

"When I arrived, I didn't speak French. I arrived with this translated letter, which just said I wanted to do judo."

Orthodox Church

He had discovered judo in Georgia, first on TV.

“During the Olympics, I saw how proud people were. I wanted to rediscover that feeling,” he said.

But then, it was necessary to flee his country of birth, to go through Belarus and Poland.

"I went through a lot, I left my country of origin. We paid someone to bring us to France when our request was refused in Poland, a smuggler," he explains.

"We arrived in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges (Val-de-Marne, Editor's note), where there is an Orthodox church. We went there, the priest helped us."

After Paris and its suburbs, the family settled in Le Havre, where the mayor Édouard Philippe pushed in favor of his French naturalization, finally obtained in 2015. "France welcomed me, opened its arms to me, even if it wasn't easy, we had to wait. "

At the end of the tortuous course, there was the medal, the first for the France team in Japan: "It's even more pride for me. I hope there will be many more. I will stay to encourage the others and I hope they will do even better than me! "

"Learn" the medal

This award, Luka Mkheidze deserved it over a tournament where he never stopped attacking and taking the initiative, from his first fight against the Spaniard Francisco Garrigos, against which he was. inclined in April in the final of the European Championships. 

He then clearly dominated the Ukrainian Artem Lesiuk, in less than two minutes.

In the semifinals, he suffered the law of Taiwanese Yung Wei Yang, in an extremely grueling fight, but he was able to re-mobilize to dominate Korean Kim Won-jin in the match for 3rd place.

"It's an extraordinary day, which rewards his commitment, his seriousness, his professionalism. It's very easy to work with him," said his trainer Daniel Fernandes.

"The idea was to take the initiative, to win each streak. Even the lost fight, we can not blame him much. Personally, I am not surprised that he is on an Olympic podium," he said. -he adds.

With AFP

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