The French judoka, who returns to competition in Israel on Friday, has angered the French Judo Federation by wanting to compete with a kimono from another brand.
His return to competition was eagerly awaited. More seen in individual competition since the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Clarisse Agbégnénou entered the running on Friday February 17 at the Grand Slam in Tel Aviv (Israel). But, the double Olympic champion would undoubtedly have preferred to come back into the light in a more peaceful context. Her Federation quite simply deprived her of coaching at the last minute because of a story of sponsors.
The double Olympic champion intended to take part in the competition with a Le Coq Sportif kimono, when the French Judo Federation (FFJ) required its representatives to wear an Adidas kimono. The five-time -63kg world champion offered to fight in a more neutral Mizuno outfit, but that only escalated the conflict.
In an email directly addressed to Clarisse Agbégnénou, the National Technical Director, Sébastien Mansois, was very firm: “We remind you that the official combat uniform of the French team, provided by the national technical staff, is compulsory (…). We have no doubt that you will respect these rules, but we prefer to remind you that in the event of a breach, it would not be possible for the Federation to maintain its commitments provided for in the said agreement, including support for your individual project..
In the process, Thursday, another email was sent, this time to the national coaches of the FFJ, still written by Sébastien Mansois. “As national coaches, you cannot coach athletes if they wear an outfit not recognized or not officially validated by the French Judo Federation”wrote the latter, asking the recipients not to speak about it in the media.
“She is very surprised by this rise in pressure”
This Friday morning, Clarisse Agbégnénou found herself without a federal coach for her first competition since the European Club Championships last November. “Clarisse is obviously shocked”, explains his agent Nadia Benabdelouahed to franceinfo: sport. “She is very surprised by this rise in pressure, by these threats with totally grotesque emails. She simply told me ‘I’m not going to say anything for the moment, I’ll speak as soon as my competition is over'”. This did not prevent her from winning against the Mongolian Yesui Darkhanbatbayar.
On the side of the Federation, even if we regret putting in such a situation a double Olympic champion, who came to Tel Aviv with her 8-month-old granddaughter, we prefer to draw attention to the reasons for the federal firmness: “When a partner (Adidas) buys the image of the France team, all members must wear the official colors when they join this institution, explains David Inquel, vice-president of the FFJ. If an athlete does not understand this economic logic and thus calls it into question, this jeopardizes the very financing of the entire French team. Clarisse is a huge champion. If we are here today, it is because contact has been broken and we will absolutely have to re-establish it as soon as possible because time is running out.”. The Paris Olympics are 525 days away.
