The Olympic champion returned to competition on Friday, February 17, in Tel Aviv, after maternity leave. Because she refused to wear the Kimono of the official sponsor of the French team, the federation deprived her of her coach during the fights.
by Louise le Borgne
An Olympic reigning champion who fights alone, deprived of coach by her own federation. This is the astonishing image which marked the return to the Clarisse Agbégnénou competition, Friday, February 17, at the Grand Prix of Tel Aviv. The Frenchwoman, five -time world champion in judo and great medal hope for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, resumed the competition on an individual in Israel in Israel, for day, after giving birth to a little girl.
The tricolor bowed in the quarterfinals and then in a draft in the -63 kg. The result, anecdotal, was overshadowed by this conflict, now a public, between judoka and the French judo federation and associated disciplines (FFJDA). In question, the brand of the Kimono of Clarisse Agbégnénou.
The blockage comes from dissensions surrounding the signature of an agreement between Agégégnénou and the FFJDA. This document determines the rights and obligations which link high -level athletes and their federation. In particular, it governs competitive practice, medical monitoring, image law, training of athletes and … their equipment. However, for three years, Clarisse Agbégnénou has not been initiated by any agreement. Upon his arrival at the head of the French Judo Federation, in November 2020, Stéphane Nomis broke the agreement established by his predecessor while waiting to fix the terms of a new agreement with Agégnénou. But the champion, who left for maternity leave after her Olympic title, is then far from the tatamis. The case is dragging… before bounced back on Monday, February 13.
“disrespectful and ubuesque”
“The Federation asked me to join overnight, without discussion, to this new convention, explains Agbégnénou in the world. Suddenly, I was imposed on me in the French championships – while the international calendar is Already very dense -, it was demanded that I ask for an authorization from the Federation before intervening in clubs or even carrying an adidas kimono in competition. I have not signed it. “The champion, who is committed personally With another equipment supplier, the Japanese Mizuno, then meets in an emergency Stéphane Nomis, the president of the Federation, at the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP), in Vincennes (Val-de-Marne ).
But the imminence of his return to competition will poison the exchanges. The day before his departure for Tel Aviv, the Emergency Adidas Kimonos Federation in Clarisse Agbégnénou. “At that time, I was clearly threatened by indicating that there would be consequences if I did not wear these kimonos. Now, I did not have time to get used to it and he n ‘There were not my sponsors on it, “reacts judoka. Faced with the reluctance of the Habs, the president of the Federation pleads as a last resort for a neutral kimono, pending a later decision.
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