Five years after her silver medal in Rio, Clarisse Agbégnénou has not let her chance slip once again.
The judokate (-63 kg) took her revenge, Tuesday July 27, on her rival, the Slovenian, Tina Trstenjak, reigning Olympic champion.
At 28, the five-time world champion won gold, the only title missing from her already rich career.
For the woman who is nicknamed "Gnougnou", the Games have been a missed event several times.
In London, she had to be content with the substitutes' bench, while in Rio she left terribly frustrated and bitter with this second place.
5 years that I wait for this moment! 🔥
There was 1 year which was particularly painful but that's it I'm there.
EN-END🙌🏾 🤩
Tomorrow it's my turn to play! 🔥 I will fight at ~ 5am French time.
Let's go!
Let's play!
Let's enjoy! 💙🤍❤️ # tokyo2020 #UneSoneEquipe
- AGBÉGNÉNOU Clarisse (@ Gnougnou25) July 26, 2021
Since the last Olympics, Clarisse Agbégnénou has been maturing her revenge, like a form of obsession.
And that is why the additional year of waiting imposed by the Covid before being able to set foot in Budokan, the legendary judo hall in central Tokyo, weighed so heavily on him.
"It was very, very hard, because it's a lot of commitment on her part, a lot of sacrifices. And this postponement, these uncertainties, it was very complicated for her", explained Larbi Benboudaoud, director of the high performance and coach of the French women's team.
Clarisse Agbégnénou had even thought of stopping everything.
"It was very difficult, very, very hard. I never thought I would be so low, in my life, in my career," she explained last June, after winning a fifth world title.
To rebuild herself, the sportswoman has made radical changes.
"I had to find myself, all alone. I needed to refocus on myself. It might have been hard to understand, but I also had to be listened to. I had to think of myself too" , she told AFP.
She spent several months in Reunion, invested a lot in life coach training at HEC and practiced boxing, yoga and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
"There are things that we would probably not have granted in normal times, but to her as to others. We may have let go of things," admitted Larbi Benboudaoud.
"She was the most ready for the Olympics and it was she who had the most 'morflé'. So we had to adapt."
A born fighter
From her birth in the fall of 1992, two months before her term, Agbégnénou's fighting spirit was put to the test. Reanimated as soon as she came into the world with her twin Aurélien, she spent her first four weeks in an incubator, fed by infusion. Then a kidney malformation required an operation "when she weighed only two kilos", tells her mother Pauline Agbégnénou to the newspaper L'Équipe. "And she fell into a coma. She was there for seven to eight days. When she woke up, with a deep breath, I remember the doctor saying my daughter was a fighter," continues- she.
Her scam, she explains also owing her childhood in the midst of her three brothers spent in the Paris region.
"It can only forge you. You're the only girl, you have no choice: you have to wage war on them, otherwise you will get eaten up!", She launches.
Directed towards judo at the age of nine to channel her boundless energy, the young Clarisse finds her way there.
At fourteen, she left the family home for the France pole of Orleans.
Then three years later, in 2009, she joined Insep, the breeding ground for French sports champions.
At the 2010 and 2011 Worlds, his first two senior international selections came to an end.
The third, in 2012, is the right one: she obtains European bronze before she turns twenty, then European gold and world silver the following year.
And her first world gold in 2014, at age 21, as she hoped loud and clear: "Frankly and without having the bowler, I do not see myself not being world champion this year".
"I don't need to pass on the culture of winning to her, she has it," summarized before the 2019 Worlds Larbi Benboudaoud, who has been following her since her debut in Blue and now director of high performance in French judo.
A committed sportswoman
His commitment and energy overflow from the dojos.
On the social networks that she uses intensely, "Gnougnou" documents her life at 100 per hour and highlights the causes to which she is sensitive, that of women in particular, she who participated in the development of menstrual panties with a specialized brand or featured on one of L'Équipe Magazine for a feature on sportswomen's breasts.
Become one of the symbols of French sport, well beyond judo, Clarisse Agbégnénou was chosen to be the flag bearer of the Blues alongside the gymnast Samir Aït Saïd, during the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games.
By winning gold, she followed the glorious fate of her judoka predecessors David Douillet (2000) and Teddy Rinner (2016), also standard bearers and Olympic champions.
How proud to have opened the steps of our beautiful @EquipeFRA with @ samiraitsaid4🥰🔥🇫🇷
The flame of # Tokyo2020 is officially lit🔥
I hope you took as much pleasure as us in wearing and singing the colors of our beautiful 🇫🇷
Now there is only 💪🏽 pic.twitter.com/behldnQEOm
- AGBÉGNÉNOU Clarisse (@ Gnougnou25) July 23, 2021
With AFP
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