Every day during these end-of-year celebrations and seven months before Paris 2024, our historian Fabrice d’Almeida takes us back to the fabulous history of those who built the legend of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Today: the French mixed judo team at the Tokyo Games
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Reading time: 4 min
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Postponed by a year due to the global Covid epidemic, the Tokyo 2020 Games are being held in 2021. World judo star Teddy Riner is coming to complete the three-peat after his titles at London 2012 and Rio 2016. He is aiming for gold again at these Games. But, in the land of judo, things do not go as planned for Riner. Eliminated during qualifying, he had to settle for individual bronze.
But the Frenchman will take a stunning revenge, because for the first time at the Olympic Games, nations can compete in mixed teams. Twelve countries compete. The French team has a faultless run and qualifies for the final… against the host country, Japan! The decisive match is breathtaking and ends with the victory of the French team which wins this first title as a mixed team in the history of Olympism.
