French judo coach Christophe Gagliano, head of the French senior men’s team since January 2021, was dismissed from his post.
Gagliano, a bronze medalist from Atlanta ’96 and a three-time European bronze medalist, was appointed at the job after the firing of Franck Chambily. Unfortunately for him, France didn’t won a single medal at the 2022 World Judo Championships, nor a ranked fighter.
“I’m sad that we come back without a medal and disappointed not to see more encouraging signs, but unfortunately not surprised. We had a very young group, a desired strategy and necessary risk-taking, to try to fill the current generation gap. A lot of delay had been accumulated before and the statistics of the last championships did not plead in favor of our chances of medal, in the absence of Teddy Riner, Axel Clerget and Luka Mkheidze. It is the whole sector that needs to be reformed, as I mentioned in the “debriefing” following these world championships. A lot of work was not done upstream, for which we are paying the price today”, Gagliano said a couple of days after the World Championships.
