Will Clarisse Agbégnénou be invincible once more? – Technologist

In the world of sports, there is an unyielding certainty about a result that seems known in advance, a level of mastery and confidence exuded by a team or an individual athlete, making them appear unbeatable. This myth of invincibility was embodied by the basketball players in the 1992 USA Dream Team and by the Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt between 2008 and 2016. Then, in 2021, there was Clarisse Agbégnénou.

That summer, the French athlete breezed through the Olympic judo tournament in Tokyo. Not once did she falter in her -63 kg category, and she even had the luxury of upsetting heavier competitors in the team event, to return from Japan with two gold medals around her neck.

Three years have passed, filled with victories and defeats – and a baby. The champion is about to compete in the third Olympic Games of her career, prompting the question: Will she become unbeatable once more? As she sets her sights on another double at the Arena Champs-de-Mars, a historic French military site, on Tuesday, July 30 with the individual competition, Agbégnénou might reflect on this quote from Chinese strategist Sun Tzu: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”

At 31 years of age, the six-time world champion knows her rivals inside out – both old ones, like Japan’s Miku Takaichi, 30, and new ones, like 21-year-old Joanne van Lieshout from the Netherlands. However, she has an even greater mastery of another subject: herself.

In May, after an infuriating quarter-final defeat at the Abu Dhabi Worlds to 30-year-old Canadian Catherine Beauchemin-Pinard, a fighter who had never beaten her before, her message was crystal clear. “It’s my fault. There’s no strategy, I need to crush my opponents from the start. It stings a bit, but it means I’ll be even more uncompromising in two months.” Her manager and confidant, Nadia Benabdelouahed, was almost amused by that reaction. Agbégnénou nonetheless won bronze, the ninth world medal in her impressive collection. “She’s as upset as ever. They’ve awakened the beast, it’s going to be titanic in Paris,” Benabdelouahed said.

Her coach Ludovic Delacotte sees it in the same light. “I never wish for defeat, but I’m not unhappy about this one,” he said. “She lost a match she could have won. This is a reminder to be cautious in every fight.” Agbégnénou knows that she is her own main adversary: “It’s up to me to stay focused until the end to go for gold at the Olympics. If I can do that, I’ll be untouchable.”

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