“Sport is health”: judo star Teddy Riner wants “the State to allocate budget” to develop it

Five-time Olympic judo champion Teddy Riner said Monday evening that he wanted the “State to allocate budget” for the development of sport in France, while Prime Minister François Bayrou has just committed his government's responsibility for his 2025 budget project.

“I want the State to put in the budget. Because (sport) is health, because it is a means of social integration for young people”, said the world judo star during the inauguration of the Paris Saint-Germain dojo in Plessis-Robinson (Hauts-de-Seine).

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The Sports budget, which the government had considered reducing in recent days despite the sector's revolt, was protected in its version proposed in the fall, already significantly reduced compared to 2024, the Olympic year. Riner was among the Olympic and Paralympic champions who signed a column published on January 21 against the reduction in the sports budget.

“The showcase of a country”

“Sport is the showcase of a country”, said Djamel Bouras, president of PSG Judo, convinced that “the more people do sports, the less we will pay in hospitals”. The former judoka, Olympic champion in Rio in 1996, also sees in the budgetary cuts made from one year to the next the sign that sport is “society's scapegoat”. However, “we have proven that we are a nation of sport, but we must all move in the same direction”, he added.

Six months after the Paris Games, judo clubs have observed a 5% increase in the number of their members.