Teddy Riner celebrates 35 years and is back as Olympic title candidate

Teddy Riner will turned 35 years old on Sunday. He is not the same dominant player he was in the 2012 or 2016 Olympics. With age, his movements are a lot slower and he doesn't seem that confident of his big techniques like uchimata and harai-goshi anymore. Yet, he is still the top favorite for gold in Paris 2024.

He's not unbeatable though. In recent years, he has lost to two players from Russia. Inal Tasoev of Russia countered Riner in the final of the 2023 Doha World Championships. The throw was initially not scored. It was deemed to be a roll-over/tipping-over technique that the IJF decided would not score. Amidst widespread public outrage, the IJF changed its decision and deemed the throw a score after all. The IJF subsequently gave Tasoev a gold medal, but strangely allowed Riner to keep his as well (so, there were two gold medalists for the +100kg division).

These two have not had a rematch since. Tasoev is currently ranked No. 1 in the Olympic rankings and is certainly a threat to Riner. However, he recently lost to his compatriot, Tamerlan Bashaev, who had defeated Riner in 2021 in the quarterfinal of the Tokyo Olympics. Since then, there has not been a rematch between Riner and Bashaev either.

Both Tasoev and Bashaev have qualified for Paris 2024. Both are competing as Individual Neutral Athletes rather than as Russians. Very likely world champion Tasoev is the best candidate to qualify for the Games.

Tasoev is a bold athlete who dares to go for big throws against Riner, as could be seen in their Doha final match. His countering abilities are strong and Riner is likely to be wary of doing big throws against him. Bashaev is a drop athlete who has the ability to slip underneath bigger opponents. This is dangerous for Riner.

The other potential threat is from Japan, in the form of Tatsuru Saito, son of the legendary, double Olympic Champion Hitoshi Saito. Riner has defeated Saito twice. The first time was at the 2023 Doha World Championships and the second time was at the just-concluded Antalya Grand Slam, where they met in the final. There, Saito was actually ahead on attacks (and Riner was down by two shidos) when Saito made a mistake and got countered for waza-ari.

Saito doesn't seem to be able to throw Riner but he can put in a lot of attacks, as he showed in Antalya. But for his mistake towards the end of the match, he would have won because Riner wasn't really attacking and was already two shidos down. Had the match gone to Golden Score, Riner probably would have gotten his third shido and get disqualified. But alas Saito cracked under pressure and made a reckless attack that cost him the match. Can he pile on the pressure should they meet in the Olympics? Or will he crack under pressure again?

Outsiders

a) Lukas Krpalek of Czechia, who has twice lost to Riner, though that was both in 2019, quite some time ago. He is also aiming for his third gold medal, so he is super motivated.

b) Alisher Yusupov of Uzbekistan, who has twice lost to Riner, though both times he gave Riner a really hard time.

c) Guram Tushishvili of Georgia, who has lost to Riner three times, but always gives Riner a run for his money.

d) Martti Puumalainen, the rising star from Finland, who has never fought Riner. He has beaten Tushishvili and Saito.