Christophe Massina was among the coaches of the French team on the final day of judo, for the mixed team event, at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and it was more than a close to our Olympic Judo experience, it was a close to Christophe’s coaching career with France Judo.
France won gold.

Back in April he talked about his career, the road to today and his highlights: https://www.ijf.org/news/show/christophe-massina-a-20-year-odyssey

After being with the team when Teddy won the deciding golden score contest, throwing Tatsuru Saito (JPN) for ippon and the title, he spotlit this very special moment, “I don’t know if it could be better! I need a good holiday after this; it’s necessary after all this work and solving and effort."

Teddy's uchi-mata against Tatsuru Saito.

"We have finished with a team gold and so many great emotions. This is a great medal to win again against the Japanese team."

Christophe Massina (far right) and thousands of spectators glued to every second of the Olympic Mixed Team final.

"We have talked about this final for the entire three year cycle. In the moment before the end, maybe I thought that it was over but then Joan [Gaba] did what he did, against Abe of all people, and Clarisse then drew the match level with her win. I talked to the team in the warm-up and said maybe she, Clarisse, would be ‘the finish girl’ for us and we would really need her. She did it in Tokyo against Arai and now again here against Takaichi. I stop my career with this! I’m happy to move on, I’m complete thanks to them and this.”

Clarisse brought France back to 3-3 against Japan.
IJF Head Photographer Gabriela Sabau's iconic team photo for the gold medallists.

Christophe Massina has had an incredible two decades with the French national team but now it is time to move on. We don’t know where we will see him next but we thank him for his work and for all the fantastic memories.

2024 Olympic Mixed Team champions: France.
See also