# Teddy Riner

Teddy Pierre-Marie Riner (/ˈriːnər/, French:; born 7 April 1989) is a French heavyweight judoka. An eleven-time world champion in the heavyweight (+100 kg) division, two-time openweight world champion and one-time world champion with the French men's team, he is the first and only judoka in history to win twelve gold medals at the World Judo Championships. Having won the gold medal in the Men's +100 kg event at the Summer Olympics three times (2012, 2016 and 2024) and, as a member of the French team, in the mixed team event twice (2020 and 2024). Additionally, he is a two-time Olympic bronze medalist (2008 and 2020), a five-time European champion, a four-time World Masters gold medalist and eleven-time Grand Slam winner in his weight category.
Riner went undefeated between October 2010 and February 2020 before his winning streak was finally ended by Japanese judoka Kokoro Kageura in the third round of the 2020 Grand Slam Paris, marking Riner's first defeat in nearly a decade after 154 consecutive victories.

## Personal life

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. 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."
He is 2.04 metres (6 ft 8 in) tall and weighs 141 kilograms (311 lb). He is nicknamed "Teddy Bear", or "Big Ted".
With his partner, Luthna Plocus, Riner has a son born in 2014 and a daughter born in 2018.

## Judo career

Riner was a member of the Levallois Sporting Club in Levallois-Perret before joining Paris Saint-Germain in August 2017. He is coached by Christian Chaumont and Benoît Campargue. He won the World and European junior titles in 2006. In 2007, he won a gold medal at the European Judo Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, on the day after his eighteenth birthday. 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.
At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, Riner competed in the men's heavyweight event. 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. In the semis he was beaten by Uzbek judoka Abdullo Tangriev on the golden score, meaning Riner had to enter the repechage rounds. 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. 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.
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.
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. After the bout, Riner refused to bow or to shake Kamikawa's hand, claiming that he "was robbed".
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. 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. He won his sixth World Championship gold medal as part of the French side that won the team event.
Riner was selected to compete for France at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England in the men's heavyweight event. The event took place at ExCeL London on 3 August. Riner won the gold medal by defeating Russia's Alexander Mikhaylin in the final.
At the 2016 Olympics, he defended his Olympics heavyweight title, defeating Hisayoshi Harasawa in the final.
In his career, Riner was only defeated nine 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 No. 2 Kokoro Kageura.
In 2021, he won the gold medal in his event at the 2021 Judo World Masters held in Doha, Qatar.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Riner achieved a bronze medal in the over 100-kilogram class following a defeat by Russian judoka Tamerlan Bashaev. He also won the gold medal in the mixed team event.
He also competed in the 2024 Summer Olympics, where he, along with Marie-José Pérec, was one of the two individuals to light the Olympic cauldron in the Tuileries Garden. He won the gold medal in the over 100-kilogram class, defeating the world champion Kim Min-jong from South Korea. With that, he equaled the record of Japan's Tadahiro Nomura, becoming one of the only judokas to have won three individual Olympic golds in judo.
The following day in the mixed team event, France faced Japan in the gold medal match for the second straight Olympics. Sanshiro Murao and Rika Takayama gave Japan an early 2–0 lead before Riner beat Tatsuru Saito. Natsumi Tsunoda subsequently put Japan on the brink of the gold medal, but Joan-Benjamin Gaba's shock win over Hifumi Abe and Clarisse Agbegnenou's win over Miku Takaichi leveled the score at 3–3 and forced a golden score tiebreaker. The 90+ kg men were randomly chosen, and Riner and Saito fought for 6 minutes and 26 seconds and both received shido twice before Riner successfully executed an ōuchi gari to achieve the gold medal-winning ippon. It marked Riner's fifth gold Olympic gold medal and France successfully defending their mixed team gold medal from Tokyo.

## Awards and honours

* 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).
* 2012: L'Équipe Champion of Champions (France male category)
* 2013: Chevalier (Knight) of the Legion of Honour
* 2024: Along with Marie-José Pérec, one of the two final torchbearers of the Olympic torch relay who lit the Olympic cauldron in the Tuileries Garden at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris