France's 21-year-old judo phenomenon Teddy Riner is busy rewriting his sport's record books and aiming this week to become the first man to win five world titles.
Already a three-times world champion, the massive Frenchman, who stands 208 cm tall and weighs a hefty 128kg, could claim two more titles at the Sept. 9-13 world championships in Tokyo.
The gentle colossus from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe will compete on Thursday in the over 100 kg category and on Monday, he will try his luck in the "open" division, which is for athletes from any weight class.
Only four men have won four titles, Japan's Naoya Ogawa, Shozo Fujii and Yasuhiro Yamashita and Frenchman David Douillet.
"My first goal is to win a new title in the over 100 kg category, which will allow me to emulate four prestigious athletes," Riner told Reuters in an interview.
"My second goal is to win a second title, in the open division, which would make me the first man with five world titles. To make that challenge come real in the land of (judo founder) Jigoro Kano, our master, would be an honour."
Kano, who created this martial art in 1882 and whose photograph adorns every judo hall in France, where the sport is extremely popular, is dear to Riner's heart.
"He's our spiritual father, our guide, he inspires us and gives us a boost," Riner said of Kano, whose philosophy was based on respect and fairness.
Kano meant his sport, whose principle is to use the opponent's strength to defeat him rather than sheer force, to be a peaceful discipline, as opposed to other martial arts whose original purpose was to kill.
"Every day, I salute his picture," Riner said. "Sometimes, I talk to him and ask him for advice."
METEORIC RISE
A stylist as much as an athlete, Riner said his approach to judo owned plenty to the Japanese masters.
"When I was a kid, I watched lots of fights from Japanese heavyweights and I was inspired by them. I think my judo is pleasant to watch, clean, in the Japanese way. The rest is power, strength, the Guadeloupe side of me."
The only blot on Rider's meteoric rise to the top of his sport came in 2008 at the Beijing Olympics. The favourite to win gold, he had to be content with the bronze medal.
"Since that day I understood that I absolutely needed to give it my very best and should not leave anything to chance, so I worked very hard to tighten a few bolts here and there, to make sure I would not be caught off guard anymore," he said.
Already one of France's most popular personalities, the discreet but cheerful Riner said his rise was far from over.
"My chance is that I take a lot of pleasure from continuing to grow and to assert my power. I'm the world champion but I still respect everybody and I don't forget that anybody might beat me."
France's top all-time judoka, however, is not Riner but the now retired Douillet, for one simple reason.
Consider that judo has been alive in the United States for a very long time. Will BJJ stay flourishing? Does BJJ have the model to successfully grow for decade after decade? I hope so. I wish BJJ well. But, I don't wish for judo to simply adopt BJJ's business model, and move along its merry way. Judo has issues with identity, purpose, and practice, not with marketing and franchise building. One thing judo must do is adapt; but, before it can do so, it has to come to terms with what it is about, and how it is practiced. It is fracturing over these ideas which are at the center of judo's woes; not how 'popular' it is. Jimmy Pedro, Joshua Resnick, and many other forum posters are all trying out their ideas and experiments. Their attempts will inform the next generation of judoka's.
You must understand that judo is not just a sport, or a martial art, or a budo. It is a culture, and in America it is a culture of cultures. You have many different groups of people within judo, and many different ideas about what judo is about and how it should be conducted. It is over these things which judo stagnates, not how 'cool' it is, or how many dojos are on your block. And don't think of this is just happening here. It is happening all over the world.
Judo is in the process of assessing itself. Unlike BJJ, judo is not free to expand beyond the legacy of Kano. What judo will be like in the future, I cannot say, but if it doesn't contain certain elements, it will not be judo. BJJ doesn't have that restriction. In fact, you don't even have to call it BJJ. You can call it grappling, you can call it freestyle, you can call it Mission Control, you can call it submission wrestling, you can call it many things. But, you cannot call anything judo. Judo is based on certain principles that are not meant to be changed. It is based on a certain idea, an outlook. What we are in the process of doing is rediscovering, re-debating, relearning what that is. This is nothing new. It's the history of judo. We will find a way to make judo work in the 21st century. Perhaps it will be neo-ultra-traditional. Perhaps we will be in spandex body suits. I have no idea. But whatever it has, it will not be judo without seiryoku zenyo being the basis of physical practice, and jita kyoei being the basis of conduct and personal growth. It will not be judo without rei. It will not be judo without tachiwaza and newaza randori.
judoratt It is much easier to get results in womens judo than mens divisions. It takes much less resorces to medal internationaly in womens than men's divisions. Will this raise some eyebrows?
stacey if you think that's true, change your sex and show us how easy it is.
judoratt I was waiting for you to chime in. I belive it is nothing more than a number thing. I belive that the judo population is probably 70% or more male world wide, so there are almost 3 males to every female. If this is so I would say that the talent pool in the male divisions are significantly deeper and take much more effort to get a athlete to the top than the female divisions. Again this is just my opinion, my best athlete results have been with Female athletes that have worked as hard as any males I have known. As far as sex changes stacy you may want to change my sex at this point. But I would love to discuss the issue and would never claim that I am always right.
stacey arguably, the social and family pressures keeping women out of sports far outweigh those prompting men to get in sport. So, for a woman to actually be in sport, let alone a contact sport such as judo, means that only the most mentally fit actually make their way into judo. In other words, if you imagine the pool of prospective judoka to be equal male to female, and then you add in social mores and pressures, you are naturally going to have a lot more men in sport than women. Further, the women in judo will be far tougher (emotionally at least, and probably physically since most of our male training partners are far bigger than we tend to be) than their male counterparts. Men have to rise from the male judo playing population, women have to rise first from the entire female population to embrace a way of life that's antithetical to most of what we're taught women really should be. Just my opinion.
Judo Dear Dennis! We feel very sorry for wrestling. And this shows one thing: nothing is definitive. And we have to be aware of it and we are doing our best so this would not happen to judo.
USA Judo will receive increased funding from the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, governing body President Lance Nading has revealed. The organisation are due to be given $762,000 (£497,000/?671,000), slightly more than the $666,800 (£432,000/?584,000) they were awarded last year. The announcement comes despite the United States failing to win a medal at the recent International Judo Federation (IJF) World Championships. “We are ecstatic and honoured that the USOC recognises the work that our organisation, coaches and athletes have done in these last three years and is providing us with the sort of financial support that will assure our top athletes be in the medal hunt in less than a year from today,” Nading said. “We believe this speaks very highly of the respect our athletes have earned in that I know many other National Governing Bodies not only did not receive an increase in funding, but in some cases their funding was cut.” A further $20,000 (£13,000/?18,000) has been added to USA Judo’s athlete support fund, which rewards American judokas who win medals at a Grand Slam, Grand Prix, Continental Open or Pan American Championships. This year, 14 United States judokas also received Elite Athlete Health Insurance, which covers these athletes throughout the calendar year for all health-related needs. Olympic champion Kayla Harrison, who won gold in the under 78 kilograms category at London 2012, received the highest amount of money in direct athlete support in 2015 as she was given $70,000 (£46,000/?62,000). “Our goal is to maximise efficiently the funds we get from the USOC by providing travel support to the selected number of athletes that have shown to have the possibility to earn the necessary points to make the IJF qualifying Olympic roster,” said USA Judo director of high performance Eddie Liddie, who won Olympic bronze at the 1984 Games on home soil at Los Angeles. “We work closely with our Olympic coach, Jimmy Pedro, the High Performance Committee members and the individual athlete’s coaches, in order to identify the events that our athletes need to compete in, and assure that the funding is in place.” The funding for USA Judo’s Paralympic athletes will remain at $85,000 (£55,000/?75,000) for Rio 2016, though they have benefitted from USOC offering further performance prize funds of $10,500 (£6,850/?9,200) to athletes who finished in the top six places at the International Blind Sports Federation World Championships in Seoul, South Korea.
Loic Korval a vu sa suspension de deux ans, infligee par l'AFLD en septembre dernier pour trois no-shows, suspendue mardi matin sur decision du Conseil d'Etat. A un peu plus de huit mois des Jeux de Rio, Loic Korval va retrouver un sommeil qu’il qualifie de ≪pas terrible ces derniers temps≫. Plus precisement depuis que, en septembre, l’AFLD (Agence francaise de lutte contre le dopage) lui a signifie une suspension de deux ans de toutes competitions. En cause : trois no-shows (absences lors de controles inopines realises entre 2013 et 2014). Le Conseil d'Etat a suspendu sa sanction mardi matin Mardi matin, le Conseil d’Etat a suspendu la sanction a l’encontre du champion d’Europe 2014 et medaille de bronze mondial 2010 des -66kg. Une decision en refere synonyme d’≪indice favorable, meme si elle ne permet pas de prejuger ce que sera la decision au fond≫, selon les propres termes de Me Gramblat, l’avocat de Korval. Et ce a l’evocation de ce qui pourrait ressortir de l’examen approfondi du dossier. ≪Nous disposions de plusieurs moyens (arguments) pour contester la sanction infligee a mon client, mais le premier d’entre eux a suffi au Conseil d’Etat pour suspendre sa suspension, confie l’homme de loi. Les autres n’ont meme pas ete etudies. ≫ Ils devraient l’etre l’an prochain. Au plus tot dans neuf mois, si l’on s’en refere au timing habituel du Conseil d’Etat. En attendant, Korval (2ans) se dit ≪soulage≫ et parle de ≪grand bonheur≫. Et il ajoute: ≪Je vais enfin pouvoir me concentrer a cent pour cent sur un rendez-vous olympique ou je viserai l’or.≫
Loic Korval est dans l'Esprit du Judo et nous avions eu l'occasion de parler de ces graves soucis avec lui. L'epee de Damocles la plus instable au-dessus de sa tete ? Pas les retombees de son explosion face aux decisions arbitrales aux championnats du monde d'Astana (qui lui a valu une suspension de principe), pas meme l'affaire judiciaire qui l'oppose a deux motards de la police - en voie de "degonflement" et qui est constamment remise - mais bien celle des trois "no-show"(entre 2013 et 2014) qui, en theorie, lui valait une suspension automatique de deux ans. On s'en souvient, le champion francais avait conteste la validite du systeme, jugeant qu'il comportait des failles importantes qui invalidaient toute suspension pour faute. Suite aux elements qu'il avait apporte, la FFJDA, qui l'avait d'abord suspendu automatiquement pour dix mois, avait renonce a le faire. Mais en septembre, l’AFLD (Agence francaise de lutte contre le dopage) lui a effectivement signifie une suspension de deux ans de toute competition. Une decision que l'avocat de Loic Korval a aussitot conteste devant le Conseil d'Etat, lequel, hier, a fini par "suspendre la suspension" pour mieux juger l'affaire sur le fond devant les arguments invoques par Me Gramblat, l’avocat de Korval.
Une suspension de suspension ? Reculer pour mieux sauter ? Oui, mais non. Car au rythme du Conseil d'Etat, Loic Korval a gagne une dizaine de mois de repit - en plus de l'indice favorable sur la decision finale que represente cett suspension. Dix mois, c'est amplement suffisant pour se preparer aux Jeux olympiques en toute tranquillite, comme l'a bien compris Loic Korval qui parle dans L'Equipe "de grand bonheur", de soulagement, et annonce sa volonte de titre olympique : ≪Je vais enfin pouvoir me concentrer a cent pour cent sur un rendez-vous olympique ou je viserai l’or≫. (article de L'Equipe, ici).
Place aux Jeux ! Apres les Jeux, Loic Korval passera en -73 kg comme il l'a deja laisse entendre. Il sera peut-etre medaille olympique, et en tout cas pret a conclure sereinement avec cette phase mouvementee de sa vie... dans laquelle il aura encore une fois demontre, au moins, sa solidite et sa combativite. En attendant, place a l'aventure de Rio pour l'insubmersible Loic Korval !