"It was honestly the best event ever. Everything was good, I have a really hard time finding any mistake in the organisation.
I was truly impressed by the preparation of the judoka, which was of a very high level and in my all career I have never seen such a level. This means that we did a good job, creating good conditions for everyone and the coaches did a very good job preparing their athletes.
We had a lot of very clear ippon techniques, nice work in tachi-waza and good groundwork. This shows the strength of our judo. We also had very few penalties for passivity and very few golden scores.
What is really important for me is that there was no serious accident on the tatami. Why? Because the athletes are in good shape. It is important for us that we are proud of our J1 athletes, they are really good judoka. We were a bit afraid after Tokyo and the separation of J1/J2 l, that we might not get the numbers and the level, but here in Paris half of the competitors are J1.
Also, watching the medal standings, it is really good. After two days and before the beginning of the last final block, we had 10 medal events, 8 countries won gold (Japan and China had 2 each). If we included the last day, I think we will have two more countries with gold medals. In total 22 countries stepped on the podium, which represents half of the countries present in Paris. This is the real strength of our para-judo which has become totally global.
Everybody agrees that the atmosphere here was fantastic. The French public is a connoisseur of the sport and they have supported their athletes but actually they support everyone, no matter where they are coming from. They just love nice judo.
I can not finish without mentioning the very good collaboration that our team from IBSA Judo has with the IJF and with the local organising committee. Everybody worked in the same direction and we can see the result."
There is still one final block to go, but already we can say that Paris 2024 was not a great success, it was a huge success, at all levels. The bar is set high now, and there is no doubt that para-judo and more generally speaking judo will continue to grow.