PARIS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Five-time Olympian Teddy Riner of France has become the only male judoka with five individual Olympic medals after claiming gold in the men's over 100kg at the Paris Olympics on Friday.
Riner defeated world No. 1 Kim Min-jong of South Korea by an ippon, winning his third Olympic individual gold since Beijing 2008. Alisher Yusupov of Uzbekistan and Temur Rakhimov of Tajikistan shared the bronze.
Riner, also an 11-time world champion, has dominated men's over 100kg for more than a decade. He won two individual gold medals at London 2012 and Rio 2016 plus two bronze at Beijing 2008 and Tokyo 2020. He also won the mixed team gold at Tokyo 2020.
"It feels good, especially when it happens this way. With such a crowd, with my family that was there to cheer me on. We understand why, all those years, we travel abroad, we train hard, and why there are moments of doubt. I know why I did it, and a lot of pride to have done it here," said the 35-year-old.
"We dream about it. We have some nightmares about it. But we can never think that it will happen this way. But it did, so I'm happy," he added.
Beatriz Souza of Brazil won women's over 78kg gold, defeating Raz Hershko of Israel by a waza-ari in the final. The bronze went to Kim Ha-yun of South Korea and Romane Dicko of France. China's Xu Shiyan was eliminated in the round of 16.
"I can control my hearing and block out the sound. I focused on my work, on the work I've done every day, and I was not paying attention or listening to the stands. I was focused on the fight," said Souza, reviewing how she overcame the support from the home crowd for Dicko during their semifinal bout.
"Judo is difficult because only one can be on top. Many fighters in this category are strong, so each match is difficult, and we all know that each fight is going to be hard," said the three-time Olympic medalist Dicko.
"Beatriz was the best today, but it's the Olympics. It is special, and we all wanted gold. But there will be more fights. This time, it's Beatriz (who won), but next time, it's going to be me," she added. ■
