Clarisse Agbegnenou said on Saturday that she was “outraged by the lack of respect” for her from the French Judo Federation, the day after the revelation by the Parisian of a disagreement about the kimono that the judoka wore during his return to competition on Friday.
“I am really overwhelmed by the situation. I am outraged by the lack of respect accorded to me,” she told AFP. “I am an athlete, I want to defend my titles, return to competition, show that anything is possible. And what stops me is my own federation. This is very serious. »
Clarisse Agbegnenou, who was making her return to Grand Slam after her maternity leave, appeared on the tatami with a kimono from her personal sponsor, the Mizuno brand, while the French Judo Federation signed a partnership with Adidas.
The double Olympic champion justified her choice by explaining that she had not fought with an Adidas kimono for more than five years and that she therefore preferred to compete with a kimono that she knew. Adidas indeed succeeded Mizuno as equipment supplier to the Federation in 2021, just before the 30-year-old judoka’s maternity leave.
A board meeting was held on Saturday
“They could have told me: Listen Clarisse, it’s complicated, it’s not our equipment supplier. We know you don’t know the kimono so we can give it to you to try it on and that way you can see if you can fight with it. (But) they did not bring me any solution, ”she regretted.
To sanction Agbegnenou’s choice to wear a personal kimono, the Federation had decided to deprive her of her federal coach for the competition. “Telling me the night before that I will be deprived of a coach because of my kimono is childish. I find it really unfortunate and I tell myself that they could have been more adult, ”she said.
“Put on the kimono of another equipment manufacturer, it puts us in overhang, I find that it is not to respect the team of France”, had declared Friday to AFP the president of the Federation Stéphane Nomis .
“What I told him is that we sit down, we write an agreement, we make you a proposal, you come back to us and we do it properly, calmly. That was my speech a week ago, not the day before. We did not take her hostage,” he added, denouncing “the aggressiveness” of the judoka’s entourage.
According to our information, Clarisse Agbegnenou proposed that a mediator intervene in order to put all the parties around the table. At midday, a Board of Directors of the Federation was held, its members wanting to know more about the situation. The latter opted for the opening of a dialogue.