They have been off the map for eight months, napping, digesting successes or failures, analysing and training. The heroes of the Tokyo Games return to the World Judo Tour, not all of them, but a good handful, as well as other shining stars who were not Olympians for various reasons. In short, there is a great concentration of talent at the Grand Slam in Paris, which begins on Saturday.
We are very much looking forward to seeing, for example, Lasha Shavdatuashvili, Amandine Buchard, Madeleine Malonga, Tato Grigalashvili, Barbara Matic and Kageura Kokoro. In other words, among them there are three world champions, three Olympic runners-up and a future that smells of glory. There are more, of course, such as Romane Dicko, Tsogtbaatar Tsend-Ochir, Sharofiddin Boltaboev, Sagi Muki, Peter Paltchik and Margaux Pinot. There is also a Japanese contingent led by Mami Umeki , Ai Shishime and Soichi Hashimoto.
All of them were, in one way or another, protagonists last year. Many were champions of something, many others reached silver or bronze and also positions of honour. The thing is that there are no great champions without great opponents. The more demanding the competition, the better the triumph tastes because the quality increases. If judo were a private company, it would be invited to all international forums as a role model. Effort is rewarded here.
Paris is four tatami and thousands of spectators, a world championship in a reduced version that appears as the second round of the calendar, like starting a car at full power in the garage of your house. Already in the hotel we look at the faces and body language. At the moment everything is contained smiles and a lot of education. Everyone talks about their desire to start; they are storing an energy and when they expel it, it will be devastating. It is clear that it is time to measure forces and that creates expectation and some kind of childish anxiety on our part. We want everything to launch now and we don't see the hours go by. That's why they compete and win and we write, because patience is not our main virtue.
So here we are, at the door of the hotel, watching the entrances and exits, observing and waving, trying to detect signs that provide us with information. At the moment we see no more than courtesy and parsimonious determination. It's already something, not bad. We know that the best is yet to come. It's a matter of hours and patience. Damn hard!