Amandine Buchard didn’t come to Budapest to bow out early. She came, as always, to fight for gold, but sometimes the draw throws a cruel kind of poetry at you: an Olympic final-worthy showdown in the round of 16. When Buchard stepped onto the tatami opposite Japan’s Uta Abe, she faced not just a fierce rival but a test of spirit. The bout was electric, tense, decided only in golden score. When it was over, the scoreboard read loss… still, her performance told a far deeper story.
“Of course I am disappointed,” she admitted, moments after the fight. “A fight like that, it should be the final of the World Championships. So yeah, it’s hard. You think, ‘Wow… my World Championship is done.’”
It’s easy to see Buchard as only the fierce, explosive judoka, Olympic medallist, European champion, tactician. However, in Budapest, what she showed was something more lasting: perspective. Despite the emotional toll, her words were already edged with clarity, even optimism.
“It’s the first one of this Olympic cycle,” she said. “And I had a good sensation. There aren’t many people who take Abe to golden score. I hadn’t fought her in a long time, so I take that as progress. She threw at the end, it was hard but if I want to be the best, I have to beat her. So, I will learn from this.”
Buchard knows defeat is part of the terrain, yet, what matters more to her is what you carry away from it. “She is human,” she said of Abe, with a small smile. “She has flaws, too. I had opportunities. I will keep working. I am not that far. The goal is still to win the next World Championships and the next Games. I have got three more years.”
In a rare twist, Buchard is also chasing a second dream, breaking through in rugby sevens for the French national side.
“This Olympic cycle is a bit special. I have got two goals: succeed in rugby, and still be a top fighter in judo. I lost here, but in two weeks I have got a rugby competition. So I switch, do what I have to do, and then I will come back to judo. I will work, work, work.”
She mentions a new coaching partnership too, with Jane Bridge, a legend of her own time. “She is a great coach. We have only just started working together, but I believe it’s going to work. I have got time. I am a worker. I never give up. I stay focused on my goal and I give my best.”
The sun will rise tomorrow on a new day, and Buchard, despite the ache of elimination, will rise with it… because champions aren’t only made in victory, sometimes, it’s in the quiet resolve of a backstage interview, with eyes still glassy and heart still racing, where the next chapter begins.
Author: Szandra Szogedi