As an athlete who bound to success quickly on the IJF World Tour, Teddy RINER (FRA) was in only a couple of Continental Open (formerly World Cup) events, both in Lisbon 2010 and 2012, early in his career. Only last week he re-entered the level, claiming gold in the Marrakech African Open, and is now gold medallist in Madrid. There were also talks of the judo legend travelling to Lima, Peru, for yet another continental open outing on the 21st of June, however after his performance today, we might be deprived off Teddy until Paris!
So why are we seeing the French judoka compete in such a flurry of events, which is quite out of character?
I am continuing the preparation with my new coach Christian [Chaumont], it is better that we check that everything is okay. I think that maybe this will be my last competition before the Olympic Games, because I’m a little tired, and to win the gold medal in Paris I know that I will need a little rest. At this moment I’m not sure, I need to talk with my staff. I am the fighter, but you know the coach is the coach!
Most will be used to seeing the towering Riner with his former coach, Franck Chambily, but no
I started with Franck, maybe 14 years ago, so a long time, but since 2009, Christian has also been working with me until Tokyo. Now we decided to change but everything is still okay with Franck and this was an agreed decision.
Before his competition in the Tokyo Olympics, Riner admitted that he hadn’t been pleased with his preparation and made a point that to compete in Paris he would be much more active and travelling more for the necessary training. Now that we can say the Olympic Games is next month, is he in a better position to take a third Olympic title in the +100kg category?
I feel so much better with my preparation for Paris than I did for Tokyo, I feel really good and I feel that everything is in place to give me a good chance for the gold in Paris.
Judoka
Author: Thea Cowen