Judo champion Teddy Riner has announced he will run for France’s presidency next year, saying he is “neither right-wing nor left-wing.”
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French judo star Teddy Riner has launched a bid for the presidency ahead of France’s election next year.
The 37-year-old multiple Olympic champion announced his run on social media and said in an interview with Le Parisien, published Monday, that he is positioning himself as “neither right-wing nor left-wing.”
Riner said he hopes to become a “president who brings people together,” arguing that it would be “irresponsible” to remain silent while the country faces pressures that have built “for several years now.”
Asked by Le Parisien whether his bid should be taken seriously, Riner said he is aware of the social tensions in France and said he cannot accept young people and older generations saying they are struggling to imagine a future.
He pointed to what he described as frustration and a lack of ambition in the country, saying, “I hear the anger, which some people echo in their rhetoric with a great deal of negativity, coming from people who no longer have any ambition or the desire to think big.”
Riner added that “France is a great country” and said the opportunity to “dream big” has helped shape him, but he argued that “Today, that is precisely what is missing.”
He also addressed his sporting career, saying in the same interview that his presidential bid does not mean he is giving up on the Olympics.
Riner said he wants to end his career with a fourth individual Olympic gold medal at the Los Angeles Games in 2028, and when asked if he would be stepping away from the Olympics he said, “Not if my duties as president allow it and the French people give me their blessing.”
The announcement comes as French authorities said in September they investigated online racial abuse directed at Riner after he expressed concern about the rise of the far right.
In another interview, with the French sports television show Stade 2, Riner said he was “freaked out” by the rise of extremism and said he meant “the far right.”
Riner said he sees no candidate offering what he described as a credible and fair vision to bring people together, saying “There is no longer that ambition, no longer that hope.”
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