Olympic champion Teddy Riner is launching the race for the 2027 presidential election. The French judoka announced his candidacy for X on Monday, to everyone's surprise. He wants to bring a voice “neither from the right nor from the left” which “refuses chaos”.
Published on: 09/11/2026 - 11:49 Modified on: 09/11/2026 - 12:38
Five-time Olympic judo champion Teddy Riner, icon of French sport, announced his candidacy for the 2027 presidential election on Monday, November 9, in a video posted on his social networks.
“My name is Teddy Riner and today, I tell you eye to eye, I am a candidate for the 2027 presidential election,” declared the 37-year-old Guadeloupean during this surprise announcement.
"Fighting has always been part of me. I know what it is to fight, to fall, to always get up again," added the still active judoka, sitting in front of a bookcase, dressed in a white shirt and a dark jacket.
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"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'", he then declines before deciding: "If refusing to lower my head and refusing chaos makes me a madman, then yes, I'm completely crazy."
"I will not be those who watch the country burn while looking for excuses. I have not spent my life behind a desk. Fighting has always been part of me. I know what it is to fight, to fall and to get up again, always", adds the greatest judoka in history, also eleven times world champion on the tatami mats.
Still Los Angeles 2028 in the back of my mind
In a long interview with Le Parisien, the French colossus, who became at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris the first judoka to become triple Olympic heavyweight champion, adds that he intends to continue his sporting career and even participate in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles "if the role allows me and if the French authorize me to do so".
Riner explains in this interview that 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".
If he agrees that there are "certainly already a lot of candidates", he assures that he intends to "go all the way" and that he would "not have taken this initiative" if he thought he did not have "all the chances".
“The only risk I see today is being resigned to choosing between two possibilities, those of the extremes” embodied by the National Rally and France Insoumise, says the judoka, who presents himself as neither right nor left.
Last September, the now candidate was attacked by the far right on social networks after having expressed his "anxiety" regarding "the rise of the far right", which "freaks him out".
Also read: Riner and Mbappé: two athletes targeted by the RN for their commitment
“Poor kid. Everything is going to be fine Teddy!”, National Rally deputy Julien Odoul said on X.
With AFP
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