Champion of Europe and the world, Madeleine Malonga only lacked an Olympic title.

In Tokyo, the French judoka failed to win gold on Thursday, July 29, against the Japanese Shori Hamada in the under 78 kg category and must be content with silver. 

HAMADA Shori was too strong !!!

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Madeleine Malonga loses her duel against the Japanese in the under 7️⃣8️⃣kg.

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Great Madeleine course.

You can be proud!

👏



And 5th medal for France in #judo.

It ensures!

😎


@EquipeFRA |

@francejudo_ |

@Judo |

# Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/qfSCwC4zi7

- # Tokyo2020 in French (@ Tokyo2020fr) July 29, 2021

At the end of a speedy fight, she was dominated over ippon by immobilization by her great rival, whom she had beaten in the final of the Worlds-2019.

"I'm really disappointed, but maybe I'll realize after that it's a great medal. I wanted so much to win, it's long years of work. It might only happen once in a lifetime," she reacted on France TV, in tears, after her defeat. 

The world number one had the pressure.

The athlete from the Etoile Sportive du Blanc-Mesnil was the one to shoot down during the Games.

"The girls want to take me down," she stressed to the newspaper L'Équipe, after her quarter-final hung against the Cuban Kaliema Antomarchi.

But Madeleine Malonga had only one idea in mind: to keep the promise she had made when she was a teenager.

"I had this dream at 14 years old already," she told the official Olympic Games website.

"But I was not aware of all that involved, all that had to be done to get there. All the perseverance, courage and determination necessary to get to the top."

See this post on Instagram

A post shared by Madeleine Malonga 🌸 (@mado_m)

"A little trick that makes the difference"

To reach the top step of the podium, the young champion from Chambly, in the Oise, indeed left her family very early to join the French judo pole of Amiens. "It was a very young age and it was difficult to leave the family home to go to sport-study in Amiens. This is also why I did not want to leave at the beginning. But my father told me. Explained that it was a chance and that if it did not go well, they could come and get me. Then I had my parents on the phone every evening, "says the sportswoman whose two parents are from the Congo.

This sacrifice is paying off.

Eleven years ago, she joined the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (Insep).

In 2014, at only 21 years old, she won a silver medal at the prestigious Tournoi de Paris, then her first Grand Slam in Baku, Azerbaijan.

His career is launched.

The judoka has a series of successes.

Perfectionist, she tries to correct the smallest details: "You have to be an actress and not a spectator. On the mat, everyone wants to be an Olympic champion, but there is a little thing that makes the difference. Sometimes there are periods. floating, in training or in competition ".

Madeleine MALONGA (-78kg) is WORLD CHAMPION !!!!!

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She beats the Japanese Shori HAMADA in front of her audience !!!


#JudoWorlds # espritbleu pic.twitter.com/1Nk5XXQMDK

- France Judo (@francejudo_) August 30, 2019

In 2018, she obtained her first European coronation against her compatriot Audrey Tcheuméo, Olympic vice-champion.

A year later, she won the world championships for the first time in Tokyo against Shori Hamada.

Last June, she lost her crown at the last worlds, but did not lose her motivation.

"It's top-level sport. You can't win all the time, it's a shame. But you learn more from defeats, it seems. So I surely learned something today," she had declared, after her disappointment in the final against the German Anna Maria Wagner.

A few weeks later, Madeleine Malonga again fell so close to the coronation.

Even if she missed her Olympic appointment in Tokyo, she will have the opportunity to take her revenge in three years, in France.

"I will digest this and prepare for Paris 2024", she said, despite her immense disappointment. 

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