There wer more than 20 on the tatami at the dojo in the rue Vandrezanne (Paris 13th) on Wednesday night.
Like every Wednesday, the elite squad met up for weekly training at the club headquarters. It was a preparative session for the upcoming objectives - a tournament in Belgium this weekend for nine judokas, the Grand Slam in Paris on 9 February for Faiza Mokdar –, but it was also a special moment due to the presence of big brother Teddy Riner. An Olympic champion… two in fact, because PSG Judo president Djamel Bouras, also donned the judogi to take part in training.
A competitor in everything he does, Teddy Riner celebrated victory in the little match of football, used as a warm-up. "Always demand the best, focus on the little details, everything counts," smiled the double Olympic gold medallist and ten time world champion. "I am really happy to be here, at the club, my club, to be back training as part of a team. All these kids here are going to take off, they each have huge potential. I remember when I was a youngster at PSG, the older judoka gave us advice and it was so important: have confidence, try things, never give up... Now it's my turn to pass on my experience."
And also to prepare for a big challenge of his own: the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020, in 18 months.