Teddy Riner

Riner was born on 7 April 1989 in Les Abymes near Pointe-à-Pitre, in Guadeloupe an insular region of France in the Caribbean. He was raised in Paris.[2][3] He was enrolled at a local sports club by his parents and played football, tennis and basketball, but says he preferred judo "because it is an individual sport and it's me, only me."[3]

He is 2.04 metres (6 ft 8 in) tall and weighs 136 kilograms (300 lb).[1][4] He is nicknamed "Teddy Bear",[5] or "Big Ted".[6]

Riner was a member of the Levallois Sporting Club in Levallois-Perret, France and is coached by Christian Chaumont and Benoît Campargue.[6] He won the World and European junior titles in 2006.[3] In 2007, he won a gold medal at the European Judo Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, on the day after his eighteenth birthday.[7] At the 2007 World Judo Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he became the youngest ever senior world champion when he won the heavyweight (+100 kg) event, defeating the 2000 Olympic gold medallist, Kosei Inoue of Japan, in the semi-final.[3][7]

At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, Riner competed in the men's heavyweight event.[2] He received a bye into the second round of the competition before beating Anis Chedli of Tunisia and Kazakhstan's Yeldos Ikhsangaliyev to advance to the semi-finals.[2] In the semis he was beaten by Uzbek judoka Abdullo Tangriev on the golden score, meaning Riner had to enter the repechage rounds.[2] In the repechage he defeated Andreas Tölzer and João Schlittler to reach a bronze medal final against Lasha Gujejiani of Georgia; Riner took the bronze medal by a score of one ippon, one yuko and one koka to nil.[2] In December 2008 he won his second World Championship gold medal at the Open weight Championships held in Levallois-Perret, France, by beating Alexander Mikhaylin of Russia in the final.[8][9]

Riner defeating Tölzer in 2010 World Judo Championships

Riner won his third world title at the 2009 World Championships in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He won bouts against Daniel McCormick, Vladimirs Osnachs, Ivan Iliev and Martin Padar in the pool stage before beating Marius Paškevičius in the semi-finals and Oscar Bryson in the final to take the gold medal.[10]

In 2010, he won two medals, a gold and a silver, at the World Championships in Tokyo. After winning the +100 competition Riner was defeated by Daiki Kamikawa of Japan in the final of open weight class by a 2–1 judge's decision.[11] After the bout, Riner refused to bow or to shake Kamikawa's hand, claiming that he "was robbed".[12]

Teddy Riner in 2012

Riner won his second European gold medal at the 2011 Championships in Istanbul, Turkey. He defeated Nodor Metreveli, Emil Tahirov and Zohar Asaf to win Pool A of the +100 kg competition before defeating Estonian Martin Padar in the semi-finals and Barna Bor of Hungary in the final to win the title.[13] At the 2011 World Judo Championships in Paris Riner won the gold medal in men's +100 kg division, beating Germany's Tölzer in the final. The result meant that Riner became the first ever male Judoka to win five world titles.[14][15][16] He won his sixth World Championship gold medal as part of the French side that won the team event.[7][17][18]

Riner was selected to compete for France at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England in the men's heavyweight event.[5][6] The event took place at ExCeL London on 3 August.[19] Riner won the gold medal by defeating Russia's Alexander Mikhaylin in the final.[20]

At the 2016 Olympics, he defended his Olympics heavyweight title, defeating Hisayoshi Harasawa in the final.[21]

In his career, Riner was only defeated eight times in elite international championships. He lost to Brayson and Tölzer in 2006, to Bianchessi and Rybak in 2007 and to Muneta and Grim Vuijsters in 2008. He lost to Abdullo Tangriev in the third round of the 2008 Summer Olympics, before obtaining the bronze medal, and on 13 September 2010 he lost the openweight title at the 2010 World Judo Championships in Tokyo to Daiki Kamikawa, his last defeat before a series of 154 victories. After almost 10 years, he lost in the third round of the Paris Grand Slam against world number 2 Kokoro Kageura.[22]

• 2016 Officier de l'ordre national du Mérite
• 2011 RTL Champion of Champions – This annual sports award was inaugurated in 2008 and is awarded by RTL, a French commercial radio network. The previous winners were Alain Bernard (2008), Sébastien Loeb (2009) and Christophe Lemaitre (2010).[23]
• 2012 L'Équipe Champion of Champions (France male category)
• 2013 Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Teddy Riner.

• Results of Teddy Riner on JudoInside.com

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Nikola Karabatić Florent Manaudou	French Sportsman of the Year 2012 2016, 2017	Succeeded by Tony Parker Kevin Mayer
Olympic Games
Preceded by Laura Flessel-Colovic	Flagbearer for  France Rio de Janeiro 2016	Succeeded by Incumbent