The legend of Teddy Riner lives on: French judo star retains heavyweight crown in style
The eight-time world champion barely broke into sweat as he defended his 100kg+ title with ease
Riner is the most dominant judoka of his time and on Friday completed a gold medal double for France (Photo: Getty Images/Pascal le Segretain
Six years undefeated, two Olympic gold medals won, and more to come.
French heavyweight Teddy Riner, a record-eight time world judo champion, earned a second straight gold at Carioca Arena 2 on Friday (12 August) in the sport's final event of Rio 2016.
Riner is arguably the sport's biggest star and he didn't disappoint on the mat in his third Olympic tournament. The 27-year-old Frenchman beat second-ranked Hisayoshi Harasawa of Japan on penalties in the final in the +100kg category.
Riner has now won his last 58 matches at European championships, world championships and Olympic Games combined in the men's +100kg.
Harasawa was penalised early for defensive posture and false attack. Riner could not score against him, but received a penalty himself for grip avoiding. But with two penalties to one, the gold was Riner's when the five minutes match time had passed.
Riner won his first match of the day in just over a minute after tossing his Algerian opponent Mohammed Amine Tayeb onto his back for an automatic victory. In his second fight, Riner defeated Rafael Silva of Brazil.
Riner also won gold in London and took bronze in Beijing.
Silva and Or Sasson of Israel took bronze.
Riner has now won back-to-back Olympic gold medals and also has a bronze from Beijing 2008.
Vive la France
France also won gold in the women's over +78kg category. Fifth-ranked Emilie Andeol beat defending champion Idalys Ortiz in overtime.
Emilie Andeol celebrates after beating Cuba's Idalys Ortiz to gold medal glory (Photo: Rio 2016/Elsa)
Neither fighter managed to score within the prescribed four-minute fight time, forcing the bout into a "golden score" period. After about three minutes, Andeol managed to trip Ortiz onto her back and then held her down for 20 seconds to earn immediate victory.
Andeol then jumped over the barriers and into the crowd, hugging supporters waving the French flag. During the medal ceremony, Andeol broke down in tears as she sang the "Marseillaise."
For Ortiz, the consolation was to win Cuba's first medal of Rio 2016.
The bronze medals went to Kanae Yamabe of Japan and current judo world heavyweight champion Song Yu of China.
