PARIS (The Thursday Times) — Teddy Riner, the five-time Olympic judo champion who entered France’s 2027 presidential race on Monday, has pushed back against President Emmanuel Macron’s praise for his bid, calling it “a poisoned chalice”.
“I’m not the president’s envoy,” Riner, 37, said on Saturday as he toured a trade fair of French-made products as part of his campaign. “If I had to describe the president’s congratulations, it would be more like a poisoned chalice.”
Macron, who cannot stand for a third consecutive term, welcomed the announcement within hours. He called Riner a “great champion” whose candidacy could “only benefit the country”. That praise has become a burden: Macron’s approval rating fell to 15% in one poll last month as protests over living costs and policing spread across the country.
‘Then yes, I am completely mad’
Riner announced his bid in a video on social media, presenting himself as an outsider who could steer France away from its political extremes. “France does not need a professional politician who recites lessons and quarrels all day long,” he said. “It needs common sense, firmness, justice, and a state that puts things right.”
He anticipated his critics. “I know what people will say about me: ‘He’s mad. He isn’t part of the establishment. He doesn’t know the rules,’” he said. “If refusing to bow my head and refusing chaos makes me mad, then yes, I am completely mad.”
Born in Guadeloupe, Riner became the youngest judo world champion at 18 in 2007 and went unbeaten for a decade between 2010 and 2020. He lit the Olympic cauldron in Paris in 2024 and still hopes to compete at the Los Angeles Games in 2028 “if the position allows it”.
Neither left nor right
Riner says he belongs to neither the left nor the right. In a newspaper interview he signalled support for a pension reform and lower social security contributions, which could appeal to the centre-right, while also deploring that a young person’s future can be “shattered” for lack of “the right connections, the right name, or the right skin colour”.
In September he said the rise of the far right made him anxious, and he later reported a wave of racist messages. Paris prosecutors opened an investigation into the abuse.
Polls show the far-right leader Marine Le Pen winning the first round of the April 2027 vote, with the hard-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon most likely to face her in a run-off. The centre-right has failed to rally behind one candidate, and former prime minister Édouard Philippe has slipped to third in recent surveys.
To get on the ballot, Riner must first collect the signatures of 500 elected officials from at least 30 departments or overseas territories, a hurdle that has kept other outsiders out of past races.
