By Zhifan Liu
PARIS (Reuters) – Frenchman Teddy Riner claiming his fifth Olympic gold medal in a dramatic mixed team final was the highlight of the judo competition and will go down as one of the great moments of the Paris Games.
To the roars of a packed house at the Champ-de-Mars Arena, Riner secured the decisive point in France’s 4-3 victory over Japan on Saturday to add another gold to the individual title he had won the previous evening.
The heavyweight judoka joined biathlete Martin Fourcade, who won five titles at the Sochi and Pyeongchang Winter Games in 2014 and 2018, at the top of the list of most decorated French Olympians.
Riner, also heavyweight champion in London in 2012 and Tokyo three years ago, matched the record of Japan’s Tadahiro Nomura, who was previously the only judoka to have won three individual Olympic golds.
“We rarely take the time to contemplate, to sit and look, but now I am going to do it,” said Riner who was competing at his fifth Olympics.
Before the 35-year-old Riner entered the mat for his third individual final on Friday, France, who won two judo gold medals in Tokyo, had yet to bag a title on home soil.
France claimed 10 medals in total in the judo competition, with Riner securing both golds.
“Riner saved us tonight,” Stephane Nomis, president of the French judo federation, said after Riner’s individual triumph.
Japan, after a winning nine gold medals in Tokyo, will only take home three titles and eight medals from Paris.
Their disappointment was symbolised by reigning champion Uta Abe’s upset loss in the round of 16 of the women’s under 52kg category.
Eleven different countries won at least one gold medal in the Paris judo competition, including first titles for Croatia from Barbara Matic, Canada from Christa Deguchi and Uzbekistan through Diyora Keldiyorova.
(Reporting by Zhifan Liu, editing by Ed Osmond)
