Inside news
Home
News
The autumn falls at the Paris Grand Slam

The autumn falls at the Paris Grand Slam

15 Oct 2021 10:20
IJF Media team and JudoInside
Christian Fidler

Just like in 2015 the Paris Grand Slam is in the autumn and even in the same weekend. Some of the great athletes travel to the French capital instead of the usual busy February month. It is normal, because in the world of judo, Paris is an eternal city and the circumstances force us to adjust.

After the Olympic Games, the champions, medallists and favourites dedicate themselves to rest; they break with an established routine because they need to recharge their batteries, to dedicate themselves to something else. So, when Paris organises its tournament, things change. The world of judo is also a sounding board and there are few secrets. The vast majority of judoka have Paris as their absolute reference after the world championships and the Olympic Games. They all want to win in Paris. There is nothing new this year, but there is a scheduled party, because the Paris tournament, now Grand Slam, is half a century old.

The World Championships in Budapest are history and Tokyo is now long gone. Even the winners of the Grand Prix in Croatia are hard to sum up although the images of the Junior World Championships in Italy may still be in our short term memory and some will appear at the biggest Grand Slam of the planet.

Tato Grigalashvili, Arman Adamian, Barbara Matic, Matthias Casse, Shirine Boukli are some examples. There is everything: world champions, Olympic medallists and bigwigs from all the tournaments. Paris is also a mandatory stop for the Japanese team since the dawn of time, because winning here is like winning in Japan: just as commendable, just as exciting.

Not everywhere can make available to judoka a stadium with a capacity for close to 20,000 people, an audience in times of a pandemic, four tatami, a gigantic warm-up area and a thousand reward points. Paris is a different grand slam, it’s like the mini World Championships. The Paris tournament celebrates its 50 years anniversary this weekend. Check out the draft participants list which has probably the smallest field of the century. Without Majlinda Kelmendi who shares the most victories in the IJF World Tour with Clarisse Agbegnenou, who is taking a rest this edition. 

More judo info than you can analyse 24/7! Share your results with your judo network. Become an insider!