The mission is more than accomplished: “My goal is to come back with a medal”, confided Clarisse Agbégnénou to 20 minutes before competing in the world judo championships in Doha, Qatar, this Wednesday in the -63 kg category. The 30-year-old Frenchwoman won gold, beating Slovenian Andreja Leski by ippon in the final. This is his sixth world title, the first since the birth of his daughter Athena, less than a year ago, on June 15, 2022.
Double Olympic champion in Tokyo in 2021, Agbégnénou further enriches her prize list, the finest in tricolor women’s judo, and confirms her return to the highest level before her ultimate goal: the 2024 Games in Paris. “I could not have dreamed of better, I knew that the path was going to be very, very hard, she reacted on the L’Equipe channel. After almost 11 months, since giving birth, I came back, I know that I am missing things to work on before the Games. In the meantime, I bring back my sixth world title. I am proud, proud of my daughter, proud of the people around me. »
“It was the most difficult title, I worked a lot to get there, she continued, dedicating this coronation to two “very sick” friends. I cried a lot too. I told my daughter that I was going to bring her the medal. Thing promised, thing due. »
A choppy recovery
Her post-maternity recovery had been turbulent, with a knee injury during her first competition with her club Red Star de Champigny at the end of November, then above all a bickering with the French Judo Federation. In February, for her return to the France team during the Grand Slam in Tel Aviv, Agbégnénou had been deprived of her referent coach in Blue, Ludovic Delacotte.
She had chosen to fight with a kimono of her personal sponsor and not with that of the “Fédé”, which had therefore sanctioned her. She was then beaten in the quarter-finals and then in the repechage.
This episode is now behind her, and Agbégnénou can now calmly prepare for the Olympics at home. With Athena always by his side, of course.