What’s up… Dimitri Dragin?

02/12/2024

[FRA – À l’occasion de ses 40 ans ce 2 décembre 2024, nous publions ici une version en anglais d’un entretien réalisé à l’automne 2016 avec le flamboyant Havrais, 5^e des JO 2008 en -60 kg et surtout indissociable d’un fameux dimanche 28 août 2011 de championnats du monde où, vexé de n’avoir pas été retenu en individuel, l’alors -66 kg fit parler la poudre lors de l’épreuve par équipes, exécutant littéralement ses quatre rivaux du jour, dont le champion du monde, le Japonais Masashi Ebinuma, et son dauphin, le Brésilien Leandro Cunha. Une performance majuscule.
Depuis cet entretien, Dimitri Dragin a successivement distillé son savoir du côté de Brétigny, de l’AJA Paris XX, de Maisons-Alfort ou, depuis la rentrée 2024, aux côtés de la quintuple médaillée olympique et mondiale et quintuple championne d’Europe Céline Lebrun, au pôle France de Châtenay-Malabry.]

[ENG – To mark his 40th birthday on this 2 December 2024, we are publishing here an English version of an interview conducted in autumn 2016 with the flamboyant man from Le Havre, 5th at the 2008 Olympic Games in the U60kg class category and, above all, inseparable from that famous World championships’ Sunday 28 August 2011 when, unhappy at not having been selected for the individual event, the then U66kg champion went on a rampage in the team event, literally crushing his four rivals on the day, including the World champion, Japan’s Masashi Ebinuma, and his runner-up, Brazil’s Leandro Cunha. A major performance.
Since this interview, Dimitri Dragin has successively distilled his knowledge at Brétigny, AJA Paris XX, Maisons-Alfort and, since the start of the 2024 academic year, alongside five-time Olympic and World medallist and five-time European champion Céline Lebrun, at the Pôle France in Châtenay-Malabry].

What’s up… Dimitri Dragin?
Interview with a young retiree who is delighted to have moved on to ‘the other side’.
Fifth at the 2008 Olympics, winner of the Paris Grand Slam in 2009, World team champion in 2011 and 3rd at the 2013 European championships, the former U60kg category (until 2010) and U66kg category member of the French national team bowed out in June 2016. What will become of him? We asked him.

The original and French version of this interview is available here.

JudoAKDReplay#005 – At the late French Championships in Montbéliard, you were seen coaching. Are you following anyone in particular?

Yes, I’m currently a personal trainer in the Paris region, looking after three athletes in particular: Cheyenne Mounier, the U48kg from Grand-Quevilly, whom I’ve been looking after since September 2015; junior Adrien Palhec, U73kg from AJ Loire, whom I’ve been following since last May; and Belgian Charline Van Snick, U52kg from Blanc-Mesnil Sport Judo, whom I’ve been coaching since the start of the new academic year in September.

Do you also teach elsewhere?

Yes. Since January 2016 I’ve been the judo expert, together with Benoît Campargue, at Sport Management System, a company that promotes sport in the workplace. And I’m also the new teacher at the Judo Club in Louvres (95). I give classes there every Monday, from mini-poussins to seniors.

We also bumped into each other at the last French junior championships in Lyon. Do you have any responsibilities at the centre?

At the France juniors I was there to coach Adrien Palhec and, in fact, I’ve only recently taken on responsibilities at the centre, since in September 2016 I became a coach at the Ile-de-France Espoir centre in Brétigny, alongside Nicolas Mossion and Edwige Guillemot.

When did you feel the time had come to turn the page on your sporting career? Was it easy or was it a slow process of realisation?

To tell you the truth, it all started when I started looking after Cheyenne while training. I very quickly began to get a lot of pleasure from passing on my experience and my conception of training and top-level sport. I really felt that during the French 1st division championships in Rouen in 2015, when I wondered what the hell I was doing on the mat because the pleasure was clearly no longer there. To tell the truth, I was more focused on Cheyenne’s course [3rd that day, editor’s note] than on my own. So, yes, it just happened.

What are you most proud of, in your career?

Well, my proudest moment was the World University Championships in Korea in 2006, when I won the individual and – even better! – in the team. We were a team of friends who didn’t let our heads get in the way, and the jokes were going from the moment we left Paris until we got back to France. We beat everyone, Korea in the first round, Japan in the final… It was the first time that France had won the title and, above all, it was the last World championship before judo became an official discipline at the Universiades. The team was made up of Ahmed Ould Said, Samir Bouheraoua, Alain Schmitt, Matthieu Dafreville, Thierry Fabre and Frédéric Lecanu. I think that, for each of the members of this team, these championships remain the best memories of their careers.

Other highlights?

My second proudest moment was obviously the Olympic Games in Beijing. It had been a complicated year, with a loss of confidence and, above all, a cruciate injury in March 2008, so it was a real gamble to take part in the Olympics with that injury. In the end, I finished 5th after a great performance. In any case, the Olympics are every sportsman’s dream. Whether or not there’s a medal at the end, I think that as soon as there’s a big run it’s something to be proud of.

And then there’s the World Team Championships in 2011 in Bercy…

Beyond myself, I think that pride was first and foremost that of all the French people present that day. I’d just moved up a category and my aim was to kick-start my season with a view to qualifying for the Olympics with eleven months to go before the London Olympics. I was hungry to prove that I could compete in the U66kg category. And I just went for it, and above all I was myself.
Finally, I’d also like to mention my bronze medal at the European Championships in Budapest in 2013. I’d been waiting for that medal – OK, it wasn’t the colour I’d hoped for, but it’s still a European medal!

28 August 2011 (again). In the semi-finals, it’s the turn of the reigning World champion, Japan’s Ebinuma, to sample the menu du jour chef Dragin style: deadlift finish flat back. ©Marcelo Rua/JudoAKD

In an interview for EDJ in September 2007 [see EDJ10], when asked ‘what would you like to be remembered for in a few years’ time’, you replied that, above all, you didn’t want people to say that you “had potential”. Nearly ten years on, do you have any regrets about your career?

My biggest regrets today, looking back… I still don’t have any [Laughs]. Obviously, we’d all like things to have turned out differently, but I’m a bon vivant. I love life, I love my family, I love my friends. What’s happened in my career, the highs and the lows, has enabled me to move forward and evolve. That’s what I want to remember.

At the age of 32, what lessons have you learned from this experience and what do you want to pass on to your students?

This experience has enabled me to understand that, to succeed at the top level, there are two conditions: you can’t be afraid to take risks and you have to enjoy yourself. Hence my favourite phrase: ‘No Risk No Fun’. Whenever these two elements came together, I was simply untouchable! So that’s the mindset I want to pass on to my students at the Louvres Judo Club, the athletes I coach and those at the Pôle Espoir: feel the pleasure of putting on a box and getting involved, don’t hesitate to take risks, have unshakeable self-confidence and, above all, train hard. – Interview by Anthony Diao. Opening picture: ©Marcelo Rua/JudoAKD.

The original and French version of this interview is available here.

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