Historic, Riner won an eighth Paris Grand Slam less than six months before the Olympics

On his way to an unprecedented third Olympic individual heavyweight title in Paris this summer, Teddy Riner had a chance to boost his confidence with a record eighth victory at the Paris Grand Slam on Sunday. The title holder in the capital, he beat South Korea’s Kim Min-Jong in the final to achieve this record eighth success in Bercy, thus eclipsing his compatriots Lucie Decosse and Clarisse Agbegnou, for gold in the -63kg on Saturday. Nine months after her eleventh coronation as world champion in Doha, Qatar, Riner returned to the tatami mats in individual competition.

The 34-year-old Frenchman started the day against Kazakh Galimzan Krykbe, who was disqualified after three penalties in 2 minutes 28, before going down in just 42 seconds against South Korea’s Jaegu Yun. In the quarters, he pinned 22-year-old German Loseni Con on the ground after 2:32.

In the semifinals, the French judoka had a slight scare against Uzbek Alisher Yusupov. For a few seconds, Bursey and his approximately 15,000 spectators were silent. Yusupov brought down the French giant, but the ippon was eventually downgraded to a point (waza-eri) after video refereeing: Reiner was not thrown directly onto his back. After equalizing, the Frenchman made a decisive attack in the last thirty seconds.