Teddy Riner runs for president
Teddy Riner has entered the race for the Élysée. The French heavyweight, five times an Olympic champion and eleven times a world champion, announced on Monday 9 November that he will stand in the French presidential election of 2027. He made the announcement in a video on his social media channels, together with an interview in Le Parisien. “Resignation is not an option,” he wrote on X. “Faced with the difficulties of our country, the time has come to take responsibility. I am a candidate in the 2027 presidential election.”
The move did not come out of nowhere. In May 2025 Riner told BFMTV that he did not close the door to politics, and in an AFP interview in Osaka in September 2025 he said that for him the best role would be president. Swiss newspaper 24 heures called it a first for an athlete still in competition, and that is what makes this candidacy different. Riner is 37, renewed his contract with Paris Saint-Germain until 2028 and still talks about a last Olympic title in Los Angeles. In his video he expects the criticism that he has no political experience, and his campaign already has a slogan, “La France qu’on veut”. His full career record is on his JudoInside profile and in our 100Judo Legends portrait.
Teddy Riner announces his candidacy on Instagram
Douillet took the path into government
Riner is not the first French heavyweight to swap the tatami for politics. David Douillet, the man who carried French judo before him, won Olympic bronze in Barcelona in 1992 and gold in Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000. He collected four world titles, including the double in +95kg and the open category in Chiba in 1995. After his career he entered the National Assembly for the Yvelines in 2009 and served in the government of François Fillon, first as Secretary of State for French Nationals Abroad and then as Minister of Sport from 2011 to 2012. Douillet never ran for the presidency. His results are on his JudoInside profile.
Battulga reached the top in Mongolia
The one man from the judo family who did reach a presidency is Khaltmaagiin Battulga. The Mongolian won the Sambo World Championships in Kyiv in 1983 and took silver in Saint-Jean-de-Luz in 1986. He led the Mongolian Judo Association from 2006, the period in which Tuvshinbayar Naidan won Mongolia’s first Olympic judo title in Beijing in 2008. Battulga sat in the State Great Khural from 2004, served as Minister of Roads, Transportation, Construction and Urban Development and became President of Mongolia on 10 July 2017. After almost four years in office he returned to the judo federation. His profile is on JudoInside.
The difference between the three is timing. Douillet and Battulga entered politics after their competitive careers had ended, while Riner announces his bid with one Olympic cycle still in his plans. The first round of the French election takes place in April 2027, fifteen months before the Games in Los Angeles. Whether he can combine a campaign with the training that eleven world titles required is the question French judo will now follow closely.
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