Since her coronation on July 24, 2021 in Tokyo and after the birth of her daughter Athena in June 2022, Clarisse Agbegnenou has only competed four times in international competition. Before the Olympic champion attempts the feat of retaining her title next July in Paris, each of her outings is an event.
Saturday February 3, at the Accor Arena, the patroness of French judo may have experienced a turning point in her Olympic preparation, during the Grand Slam in Paris. At 31, she reassured about her physical and mental capacity to suffer. The new generation of – 63 kg, as promising as it may be, has not yet gained the upper hand over the experienced champion with six world titles and three Olympic medals.
In the final, Clarisse Agbegnenou beat 21-year-old Croatian Katarina Kristo to win her seventh Paris Grand Slam, ten years after the first in 2013 and four years after the last. Proof of impressive and rare longevity – Teddy Riner competing on Sunday is another example – in a sport as demanding as judo.
After an anecdotal introduction against the modest German Agatha Schmidt, it was by drawing on the limits of her strength that she came out of an interminable fight against the Japanese Megumi Horikawa. “Clarisse”, “Clarisse”, as the spectators affectionately encourage her, fought eight minutes and thirty-seven seconds of golden score, or twelve minutes and thirty-seven seconds in total, to snatch victory in the penalty game (3 to 0).
Facing the 2022 world champion – a title obtained that year by the Japanese in the absence of the Habs – Agbegnenou offered herself a magnificent rehearsal before the Paris Olympic Games. In poor physical shape, by her admission even during the last European Championships in Montpellier, in November 2023, where she failed in seventh place, she reassured about her physical abilities. And above all, she proved that she had lost none of her incredible mental strength, careful not to make the slightest mistake.
Giantess match
If Horikawa gave Agbegnenou a hard time, the Frenchwoman will have to face another Japanese at the Olympics, Miku Takaichi, certainly present in Paris for an international training course but not lined up for the competition.
After this giant match, she blew away by getting rid of the Cuban Maylin Del Toro Carvajal in the official time limit. An economy of her strength which she needed to beat by ippon, in the semi-finals, during the golden score (3 minutes 50 seconds), the young and talented Dutch judoka Joanne van Lieshout, 21 years old and already a world bronze medalist in 2023. An opponent who will have to be counted on this summer as she has shown that she is one of the rare judokas to move athletically her elder.
For Clarisse Agbegnenou, one of the two standard bearers of the French delegation to Tokyo in 2021, Paris 2024 is THE event not to be missed, as she announced at the end of January in a chat in Le Monde.
Unfazed for a long time as she dominated her sport, the young thirty-year-old inevitably feels the weight of history for what will be “her last Games. » “Without Paris 2024, I might have stopped after Tokyo to devote myself 100% to my family life. It’s a burden, obviously because I know that I am eagerly awaited, being French and the reigning Olympic champion, she confided. There may be fear of doing wrong and disappointing. Me first and also my daughter who will live this adventure with me. I want to put this gold medal around his neck. »
Between now and this last Olympic dance, the champion is planning two or three more competitions for her preparation: the Grand Slam in Tashkent (Uzbeisktan) at the beginning of March, then either the European Championships (in April) or the Worlds (in May) – with a preference for the latter – and finally perhaps one last tournament to be defined. “It’s important to compete before the Games. I returned from pregnancy and I would like to resume competitive habits before the Olympics,” she explained to Le Monde.
The challenge will be to recover all of its physical resources. Clarisse Agbegnenou fears no one. She even imposes undivided reign, transforming her rivals into vassals.