Teddy Riner

Teddy Riner

250px Teddy Riner in 2012
Personal information
Full name	Teddy Pierre-Marie Riner
Nickname(s)	Teddy Bear, Big Ted
Nationality	French
Born	(1989-04-07) 7 April 1989 Les Abymes, Guadeloupe, France
Height	2.04 m (6 ft 8 in)
Weight	130 kg (290 lb)
Sport
Country	France
Sport	Judo
Event(s)	+ 100kg
Club	jc levallois
Turned pro	2007–
Coached by	Christian , Benoît Campargue
Medal record Olympic Games 2012 London +100 kg 2008 Beijing +100 kg World Championships 2007 Rio de Janeiro +100 kg 2009 Rotterdam +100 kg 2010 Tokyo +100 kg 2011 Paris +100 kg 2013 Rio de Janeiro +100 kg 2014 Chelyabinsk +100 kg 2015 Astana +100 kg 2010 Tokyo Open World Openweight Championships 2008 Levallois-Perret Open European Championships 2007 Belgrade +100 kg 2011 Istanbul +100 kg 2013 Budapest +100 kg 2014 Montpellier +100 kg 2016 Kazan +100 kg Mediterranean Games 2009 Pescara +100 kg

Teddy Pierre-Marie Riner (French: [tɛ.di/te.di ʁi.nœʁ]; born 7 April 1989) is a French judoka. He has won eight World Championships gold medals, the first and only judoka (male or female) to do so, and an Olympic gold medal. He has also won five gold medals at the European Championships. He is a member of the Levallois Sporting Club in Levallois-Perret, France.

Personal life

Riner was born on 7 April 1989 in Les Abymes near Pointe-à-Pitre, on the island of Guadeloupe, during a family holiday. He was raised in Paris, France. 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 136 kilograms (300 lb). He is nicknamed "Teddy Bear", or "Big Ted".

Judo career

Riner is a member of the Levallois Sporting Club in Levallois-Perret, France and is coached by Christian Chaumont and Benoit 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 semifinals. 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.

File:2010 World Judo Championships - Final +100Kg - Riner defeating Tölzer.JPG

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 semifinals 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".

File:Teddy Riner.jpg

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 semifinals 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, United Kingdom 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.

Teddy Riner registered during his career only eight defeats in international championship elite: He lost to Brayson and Toelzer in 2006, to Bianchessi and Rybak in 2007 and to Muneta and Vuijsters in 2008. The last two defeats he had in the 3rd round of the competition (heavyweight) of the Olympics of 2008 in front of Abdullo Tangriev before obtaining the bronze medal, and on September 13, 2010 for the title " any categories " of the world of Tokyo in front of Daiki Kamikawa, his last defeat in date, followed by a series of 103 victories (the last won in Grand Prix Jeju, on November 28, 2015).

Awards

• 2008 Chevalier 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 de la Légion d'honneur

External links

• Videos of Teddy Riner on Judovision.org
• Results of Teddy Riner on JudoInside.com

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Nikola Karabatić (Sportperson of the Year)	French Sportsman of the Year 2012	Succeeded by Tony Parker