Paris (France) (AFP) – “My name is Teddy Riner and today, I am a candidate for the 2027 presidential election”: The five-time Olympic judo champion took the political class by surprise on Monday by launching into the race for the Elysée.

Published on: 09/11/2026 - 1:48 p.m. Modified on: 09/11/2026 - 2:01 p.m.

It was through a 2 minute 37 second video, posted on her social networks, that the French sports icon made a sensational entry into the presidential campaign shortly before noon where the polls currently give an overwhelming advantage to Marine Le Pen (RN) ahead of Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI) and the other candidates.

"I know what people will say about me: 'He's crazy. He's not from the inner circle. He doesn't have the codes. He's never been in politics,'" explains the 37-year-old from Guadeloupe, sitting in front of a library in a white shirt and dark jacket, before deciding: "If refusing to lower my head and refusing chaos makes me crazy, then yes, I'm completely crazy."

Riner is worried about a France which is "collapsed under the weight of debt", is moved to see "a father or mother gritting his teeth while filling his shopping cart". He deplores that "the authority of the State has disappeared" in the face of "thugs", but also "the administrative burden" or even "that we can ruin the future of a young person just because he does not have the right network, the right name or the right color".

"The best role"

"I will not be one of those who watch the country burn while looking for excuses. I have not spent my life behind a desk. Fighting has always been a part of me. I know what it is to fight, to fall and to get up again, always."

In a long interview with Le Parisien, the French colossus, eleven times world champion, adds that he intends to continue his sporting career and participate in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles "if the position allows me and if the French authorize me".

His decision to run dates back to after the Paris Olympics, where he saw “an entire country come together, proud, happy. Then divide a few weeks later”.

While he agrees that there are "already a lot of candidates", he assures that he intends to "go all the way".

“The only risk I see today is being resigned to choosing between two possibilities, those of the extremes,” says the judoka, who presents himself as neither right nor left.

Teddy Riner had several times hinted that he might get involved in politics. As early as September 2025, he confided in an interview with AFP: “If tomorrow I enter politics, it is not to have a ministerial post, it is to have a role that changes things. For me the best role would be president”.

Another French Olympic judo champion, David Douillet, had been a deputy and Minister of Sports under Nicolas Sarkozy.

Pension reform

Regularly positioning himself on social issues, Riner was the target of racist remarks in September after having mentioned in the program Stade 2 his "anxiety" about "the rise of the extreme right" in France, which made him "freak out".

Riner also invested heavily in business. Close to the King of Morocco Mohammed VI, he lived in recent years between Marrakech, "his rear base", and Paris, attracting criticism for his supposedly expensive lifestyle.

On October 15, the Versailles administrative court of appeal confirmed the tax authorities in a recovery in 2019 linked to the judoka and his luxury car rental company. Bercy had criticized his personal use of certain vehicles.

On Monday, he declared in Le Parisien that he had been working "for several months already" on his program for 2027 with "a hard core of around twenty personalities from civil society, civil servants, and former ministers too".

Questioned on certain specific subjects, he believes that “we need” a pension reform “because the current system does not hold up”. He also pleads for "increasing the net salary", which "must involve reductions in charges", and allowing "French people who want to, to increase their income by working more".

He indicates that he wants to quickly go "on the ground" to begin his campaign, financed by "donations, fundraising appeals, but also from his own funds".

Finally on the question of the 500 signatures necessary to present himself, he affirms: "in a democracy, that cannot be an obstacle. I believe in the French Republic."

© 2026 AFP

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