Teddy Riner is ready for holiday after Olympic gold medal

Teddy Riner was the expected winner of the Olympic title. And we all think he is a robot winning it all, but Riner is human, she reacted on the cheers and the disapproval of the crowd. Although he wanted to win by ippon, it is not always possible to fight athletes who train for four years to beat the French giant.

Can you describe your last two matches again Sasson (ISR) and the final against Hisayoshi Harasawa (JPN)?

"The two last matches, the semifinal and the final, were the hardest ones. Coming here I was sure that I will face Harasawa in the final and this is what happened. The logic of the draw was observed. I also knew that it would be Sasson in the semis.

"Coming here, I knew it would be tough. These two fighters I had in the afternoon were strong and today proved that they are really strong opponents and I have to be aware of them in the future.

"My day overall, I feel a lot of pride and joy that you do not see right now, because it is a big day and it is tiring and testing. But the joy is inside and I think I will not sleep tonight."

You won everything in your career, are you still excited?

"It is always a special moment, a new Olympic medal. It is my third one and it is huge. I am proud of myself and pleased with myself because I did not let go in the final, I did not let go in my preparation, did not let go in the Olympic cycle, in spite of injuries and missing feelings."

Was this Olympic competition difficult?

"Each tournament is difficult, regardless of my success. Sometimes the people are saying there are no opponents, but I think today they cannot say that there are no opponents. It is no always a fact, not always ippon in each sense of the word.

"Each time I ask myself, why do I do that, I am working like crazy. But you need this to move forward, to continue and now it (the medal) is in my suitcase."

How did you experience last few days for the competition?

"I felt good. I told my coach that I'm ready to get out on the mat. That means I want to have fun, to take advantage, to do judo."

Can you tell something about your future?

"I still would like to experience moments like this. Right now I do not want to think about Tokyo 2020, I want to go on vacation, to take a breath. It is tiring to be always last to compete. But it was a perfect Olympic cycle regarding the results."