the Paris Olympics, “it will happen very quickly”, is already impatient Teddy Riner, crowned world champion for the eleventh time

The legend is alive and well. At 34, Teddy Riner embraced his eleventh world gold medal, Saturday May 13, in Doha (Qatar). The Frenchman, who had not participated in the Worlds since his last coronation in 2017, was not one of the top seeds. Despite everything, Riner defeated in quick succession the reigning vice-world champion, the world number one, then in the final the 2021 European champion, Inal Tasoev, a 25-year-old Russian who was able to participate in the competition under a neutral banner. .

440 days before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, Teddy Riner takes a date, therefore. “It bodes well for the 2024 Games”rejoiced the Guadeloupean, guest of the “20 hours” of France 2. “Paris, it will happen very quickly, fifteen months is not much. But you have to use these fifteen months to prepare as well as possible and be the best possible.” But before, “I’m going to take a little rest, savor this medal with family, friends. And then afterwards, I’ll go back to work.”

Not yet at his best, Teddy Riner is more than ever on his way to a third individual gold medal at the Olympic Games, which no judoka has managed to do in his category.