The expectations for Team France are understandably high, especially in the judo. Their top athletes are all capable of podium places and they certainly started the ball rolling on day one of the judo event in Paris 2024.
Team France’s first Olympic medal came from Shirine BOUKLI in the -48kg category, opening the medal contests in the perfect way. For Boukli, the Tokyo Olympic Games was a tragedy, but in this last Olympiad, she has transformed as an athlete and competitor, today it showed.
Despite a quarter final loss to TSUNODA Natsumi (JPN), Boukli came through the repechage against Assunta SCUTTO (ITA) and tackled Laura MARTINEZ ABELENDA (ESP) for the bronze medal fight. The pair went in to golden score and as they tired, Martinez attacked with a weak drop seoi nage, which Boukli was able to control and step around, attacking with o soto gari for the bronze medal-winning score.
Regardless of the final result in the -60kg category, a medal was coming home to France, in the hands of Luka MKHEIDZE who already took an Olympic medal in Tokyo. It was always going to be a dynamic final, but it was explosive from the first hajime.
Yeldos SMETOV (KAZ) has already been in an Olympic final, taking the silver in Rio de Janeiro 2016, then stood by Mkheidze in Tokyo to take bronze. Now the two are fighting for the gold medal, both for the nation but Smetov was desperate to complete his collection, a third medal in his third Olympic Games.
With a minute left on the clock, Smetov scored waza ari hooking in as Mkheidze attempted a tomoe nage, and with that brought the French crowd to their feet! Mkheidze came close on two occasions to scoring as the clock ticked down, never giving up, but in the end, he settled for the silver medal in Paris, and added another to the medal table for his country. A huge accomplishment for Team France on day one, setting the standard for the rest of the team for the next seven days!
Judoka
Author: Thea Cowen