Born on July 20, 2002 in Paris (France), Romain Valadier-Picard is European champion and vice-World cadet champion in 2019, European junior champion in 2021, double World junior medalist in 2021 and 2022 and already in the top 3 of French seniors in the U60kg category when, in the fall of 2023, this logbook begins. A chronicle of a season that is neither totally dry nor completely white, but which says a lot about how a final Olympic stretch can feel for someone who is on the verge of being there – while simultaneously, like other French and foreign judokas, pursuing advanced studies, since the ACBB fighter is, at the same time, in his fourth year of an engineering school. His story gives us the words of a youth in a hurry who is learning patience – or even, who knows, the birth of a future wise old man. – JudoAKD#022.
A French version of this interview is available here.
September 22, 2023 – Baku Grand Slam. “It’s a Grand Slam like any other, but it should really launch me into the Olympic race. The goal is clear in my head: I go for the medal. To show that I’m there, not far behind, and that I shouldn’t be forgotten. Because, obviously, what’s also very clear to me is that I’m behind at this point. Luka Mkheidze is an Olympic medalist while I’m coming out of the juniors. I certainly won a few medals on the IJF tour and had a good end to the season last year [gold medal at the Austrian Grand Prix and then silver at the Mongolian Grand Slam, ed.] but, from my perspective, everything remains to be proven in this back-to-school competition. Very paradoxically, if I really want to, I feel rather relaxed and it is full of serenity that I approach this deadline… Despite a more than complicated competition and a day where I am far from my best judo, I still manage to go for a bronze medal by beating three former or current world champions: the Kazakhstani Yeldos Smetov, 2015 World champion, 2nd at the 2016 Olympics and 3rd at the 2021 Olympics [and eventually Olympic champion on July 27, 2024 in Paris, ed.], the Spaniard Fran Garrigos, 2023 World champion [then 3rd at the 2024 Olympics, ed.] and the Georgian Lukhumi Chkhvimiani, 2019 World champion. »
November 3, 2023 – European Championships in Montpellier. “After this medal in Baku, I started to hope, especially since Luka lost in the first round there. I said to myself: ‘and why not me?’… It is in this state of mind that I approach these senior European championships, the first of my career. Full of hope, full of ambition, with anger in my belly. And it is this mentality that carries me throughout this competition where, despite the lack of sensations, I manage to win a bronze medal. Even if I am not very satisfied with what I produced that day in technical terms – and a small part of me would have liked to go through to the semi-finals and take on Luka in the final –, I am proud to have managed to go all the way in this competition. Proud to have managed to write the first line of my senior record – the only lines that really count, for me.
A short period of two weeks follows where I am still in euphoria. I rarely allow myself this kind of relaxation, this self-satisfaction, but there I said to myself: ‘Enjoy!’ So that’s what I’m doing. With this medal, I think I deserve Luka and I to be separated a little later in this Olympic race. The sequel will reveal that I am totally wrong. »
November 24, 2023 – The announcement. « Three weeks have passed since my European medal in Montpellier. It’s the day the first names selected for the Olympics are announced. At that moment, I don’t suspect for a second that Luka’s name will be given. To tell you the truth, I even came to train before the session like a normal Friday, to do a bit of technical work, and this announcement even left my head… So, when I hear Luka’s name, it’s a shock for me. Really. A huge disappointment, mixed with frustration. I thought I had done my best to show that I was there. Obviously it wasn’t enough.
The following weekend, I get up and go running to let off steam. A sentence keeps going round and round in my head: ‘so I won’t do the Omympics’. It’s all the harder because I had really seen this distant dream of doing the Paris Games becoming reality. A dream therefore collapses, and this sentence which passes and re-passes in my head… That weekend I lose two kilos because I run so much to forget. I replace my moral suffering with physical suffering… The fact is that I leave for Tokyo the following week. So it is full of bitterness that I fly to Japan, the lair of judo.
December 3, 2023 – Tokyo Grand Slam. “At that point, the flame went out, I admit. I’m not saying that I’m approaching this competition without wanting to win it – deep down, I’m still a competitor, especially since, when the draws come out, I find myself taking on the Japanese Takato, Olympic champion and four-time World champion, in the first round. It’s the perfect opportunity for me to prove them wrong. For me, this competition is a revenge match.
Unfortunately, that day, I don’t manage to find the resources needed to beat Takato. As great a judoka as he is, I can’t make enough of an impact on him, and so I leave the match with my head down. It’s barely nine in the morning in Tokyo and the competition is already over for me.
There’s nothing worse than losing. I write a lot after competitions, to try to understand the whys and wherefores. [In a rare show of confidence, Romain Valadier-Picard will let us read the lines written in the heat of the moment after this fight in his logbook. It talks about ‘hand placement’, combat intelligence, ‘mental precision’ and sequences to be better constructed. All with passages in capital letters to better underline this constant requirement, ed.]
December 4-15, 2023 – Tokyo International Training Camp. “Then follows the Japan training camp which does me a lot of good. I shave my head, both to symbolically start from scratch and to accompany Eliot Prévé, my future teammate at the ACBB, for whom it is the first time in Japan… It’s silly but doing that helps me move forward, in the same way as training hard and doing judo. Unfortunately, during the first training session of this training camp, I hurt my ankle. Nothing too serious at first so I finish the training camp. It turns out that I tore my anterior inferior tulo-fibular ligament… So here I am back in France. Injured, losing… and without hair [Laughs].”
Christmas. “These holidays allow me to recharge my batteries with my family and friends. I admit that these few days are doing me the world of good. They allow me to digest this double defeat that was my non-selection for the Olympics and my first round in Tokyo. It is important to sometimes take a step back from judo. To remember that life is not just judo. When you are in it, it is not always easy to realize it.
We then restart the season with a training camp in Reunion Island. Back from my ankle injury, I am taking it easy, focusing mainly on technique and physical preparation. The goal is to be ready for the Grand Slam in Paris on February 2nd. Given that I started back on January 2nd, I have exactly one month to arrive in the best possible conditions.
These few days of Christmas vacation have given me back my taste for judo but above all the desire to win and to show that I would have deserved that they wait. I was unable to prove it in December in Tokyo but, in my mind, I only have one desire: to make up for it in Paris by going for the most beautiful medal. The objective is also to go for a qualification for the European and World Championships because the place is tight between Cédric Revol and me…”
February 2nd, 2024 – Paris Grand Slam. “So it is full of revenge – a personal revenge for last year’s poor performance in Paris and that of Tokyo two months earlier, as well as revenge for Luka’s Olympic selection – that I am presenting myself at my fourth Paris Grand Slam.
I reached the quarter-finals where, unfortunately, I lost to the Korean Lee Ha-rim after five minutes of golden score… So here I am in the repechage against Dilshot Khalmatov, the Ukrainian who beat me at the European Championships. I came with a spirit of revenge. I just had to. The fight went to golden score and we ended up with a penalty each. Right at the start of the golden score I gave him a great ippon-ko. The referee announced ippon. I rarely speak out but this time I let my enthusiasm slip a little… Problem: it seems that I touched the leg with the tip of my shoulder. Thirty seconds later, my ippon was replaced by a shido against me, the fault of this shoulder which had grazed his leg. And here I was, two shidos to one down. At that point, I admit, it was a bit complicated. I had won and I was now in a perilous position. So the fight continues and I make a mistake. I throw myself and touch his leg, again… And that’s how this new Grand Slam ends for me. With rage in my stomach, full of frustration and hatred. Judo isn’t that simple… I just have to get back to work.”
March 1, 2024 – Tashkent Grand Slam – “A month and a half later, the French team offers me the opportunity to fight in Uzbekistan. I absolutely need a medal. Indeed, in front of me, Luka Mkheidze is shining and, behind me (or in front, I can’t say…), Cédric Revol is also having a good season. If I want to make it to the Europeans and the Worlds, I have to shine, show what I’m capable of. It’s funny, or rather surprising, to see how much a defeat drags you down into the hole and that only a new goal and a return to training allow you to come back to the surface. So I’m continuing with this competition, this time with a certain pressure above my head linked to Cedric, Luka but also to all those who are behind and who also want to go and grab their place in this French team. And, for once, the sensations are there. While relaxing, I managed to have one of my best competitions. Until the semis I won all my fights on ippon by putting in nice boxes. And, I admit, it was nice. In the semis a movement error meant I was led waza-ari against the Georgian Sardalashvili, while I had the fight in hand. I put him in danger on a large number of actions but without ever managing to bring him down… It’s a shame because that day I really had all the cards in hand to beat anyone. I then managed to win my third place against Bliev, a Russian, on a super tai otoshi. I admit I am quite happy and proud of myself that day. Even if I only have the bronze medal, I have very rarely managed to produce such liberated judo. There are days without but also days with. This is one of them.”
March 2024 – Training courses. “This was followed by a week-long training camp in Uzbekistan and then another week-long one in Japan, in Tenri. What a pleasure it is for me to do judo there! I love it. That judo, that culture, that society… I was about to go and live there [Smile].
A week later, I learned that I had been selected for the European and World Championships, respectively a month and a half later for the European Championships and two months later for the World Championships. From that moment on, I said to myself: OK Romain, you won’t be doing the Olympics but, you never know, you could be European champion and World champion this year. Even if it’s not the Olympics, it would be my way, the one over which I have control, of making history in French judo.
Two weeks before the European Championships, we went to Vichy for a ten-day training camp. The goal was to do a lot of fighting and judo. Looking back, I admit that I think I shouldn’t have listened to the coaches and I should have done my best to build up some energy before the Europeans. Even though I’m sure that this training camp is giving me a lot, I come back tired and with judo sensations that are very different from those of the competition. Obviously, when the scheduled session is 12 x 6, you have to adapt and reduce the intensity. It’s really great to do that because it allows everyone to relax, to loosen up a bit and to concentrate on judo. But I come back full of judo, maybe even too full and with less impact than I’m capable of… The weekend before the Europeans, I have to admit that it’s maybe the fault of the diet, this accumulated fatigue and the sequence, I’m tired… But I can’t listen to myself very much and that’s failing me. You tell me to train, I train.
The desire, on the other hand, is there. However, unlike other previous competitions, in this one I feel rather appeased. This appeasement had already allowed me to pull off one of my best competitions in Uzbekistan, so now I tell myself that I’m going to try to find it again. So it’s tired but full of confidence that I line up for these European Championships. I had done three in Montpellier. Impossible to do worse. Impossible to come back with anything other than the gold medal… »
April 25, 2024 – European Championships in Zagreb. « The result is very far from gold since I lost in the first round. This defeat is quite special because it’s really everything that never happens for me that happened. A first defeat on a grinder. A first defeat in the first round in the championships. I admit it, it hurts me. The worst thing is that when I lost I didn’t see the shido coming. When it falls, it is therefore stunned that I leave the mat and sit on the ground in a corner behind the stands. I have been fooled at my own game or, at least, at the one that was mine for a while. The difference is that I never looked for the shido but rather to make it fall.
Back in France the next morning, I take a few days of vacation in Barcelona with Olivier Ondet, my best friend, because it is necessary to move on quickly. And this other thing is the World championships in Abu Dhabi, three weeks later… And three weeks, I can assure you that to prepare for a World championship is short. So if on top of that you have to rebuild yourself, it’s over. So I do my best to no longer think about this bad phase, at least until the World championship… An objective was ruined. Now it’s up to me to limit the damage as much as possible to, at least, make sure to shine at the next one.
However, I keep this frustration inside me and, during these two weeks, it serves as my driving force. Very often I don’t realize that I’m going to lose until the moment I lose. It’s as if, in my mind, defeat is impossible. Remembering this event is tasting the bitterness of defeat. I am not a supporter of Mandela’s famous phrase ‘I never lose, either I win or I learn’, which everyone brings out at every defeat and which annoys me more than anything else. But I must admit that losing teaches me and makes me grow. Sometimes failure can also be a source of motivation. »
In the first round of these championships I meet a fairly tall, left-handed and invasive Dutchman. A match that could turn out to be a trap for me given the profile. You have to be precise with your hands, mobile before grabbing, and not let yourself get overwhelmed. In the fight, I manage to set up these objectives rather well and I win with shidos.
The second round is against the Uzbek Ruziev, the winner of the Tashkent Grand Slam where I come third. In one sequence, I manage to chain on the ground and end the fight with an immobilization.
The quarter-final is against the Taiwanese Yang, the reigning Olympic vice-champion. A fight that promises to be tough but more than passable. I know him well because he came to train with us on the recent Vichy training camp. A big hand fight awaits me and I know it. What I discover, however, is the intensity he puts into the fight from the start. It earns me a shido for leaving the mat in the first sequence of the fight. Then, a few seconds later, here I am with a second shido for non-combativity, won by Yang, always the attack that pisses me off before me. A phase follows where I am better but to which Yang reacts by jumping on me and, on an o-soto from afar, he manages to give me a waza-ari. Only two minutes left to catch up. I rush and, as he puts his hand on the backhand, I throw sode… He moves, rubs his elbow and, suddenly, I take hansoku make for dangerous action, synonymous with defeat but also the end of the competition…
Rarely in my career have I been confronted with such a frustrating situation. It is truly terrible to finish with a feeling of incompleteness, of unfulfillment. There is nothing I hate more than that in this world… I remember going out for a run for an hour and a half in the evening, getting lost in the streets of Abu Dhabi and then stopping, exhausted, drained of all energy, then returning to the hotel full of despair to pack my bags and return that same evening to France, with nothing but my suitcase and my anger. In these moments I question myself… But hey, deep down I really love judo. As hard as this sport is, as unfair as it can sometimes be, I love it and I couldn’t imagine my life without it.”
May 2024 – Paris. “So for almost a week I was frustrated, angry, with this desire to break everything and, to top it all off, a pain in my knee that was a souvenir of my first fight – a stage 2 sprain of the internal lateral all the same… At least four weeks without judo. Doubly frustrating. So everything goes badly until the day when, leaving my MRI, I get hit by a van in front of INSEP. This accident, I admit, leaves its mark on me. I find myself on the ground, my forehead bleeding, and there I say to myself ‘oh shit am I going to be able to do judo again?’… In the heat of the moment, I’m afraid I’ve stupidly lost what I care about the most. Fortunately, I come out of this accident almost unscathed, except for a scar on my forehead that I think will stay with me for life. The positive thing to remember is that from that moment on, I understand that I have digested my defeat. I am alive, able to continue judo, pursue my goals and defend my chances in the championship in the years to come. Life sometimes hangs by a thread, by a stupid accident, and everything you’ve spent years building can collapse. All this to say that, since then, I have rebuilt myself from all these failures and disappointments. I decided to start the Olympiad by going to Japan for three weeks in the summer, then again for a month and a half in September and a month and a half in November. I also decided to raise awareness of my practice by defining my judo objectives in a file that will be useful both for me and to keep my coaches informed during my trip to Japan, by giving them short reports on my sessions. So I am starting again with a new dynamic, hoping that the upcoming Olympiad will be mine and will allow me to achieve my objectives.
July 2024 – Japan. “I’m going to Japan alone, at my own expense, with my buddy Driss Masson Jbilou. We’re going for three weeks: one in Tenri, another in Tokyo at Kokuchikan and Nittai Dai, then Tsukuba until August 15, then Kokugakuin to train on August 16 and 17. Each university has its own particularity. At Tenri, we do a lot of volume, training almost twice a day, based on ten randoris of six minutes minimum. The goal is to be more flexible and that’s the case there where the guys are a little less loud. At Kokuchikan, there’s more fighting. We do a little less fighting even if it’s still a 15 x 5 minute model. We did one out of two or two out of three, which still makes between nine and twelve per session. Tsukuba is still a little different since there are a few more ground sequences, even if it’s about 15 x 5.
In terms of intensity, the pace is indeed not easy. There are days when I’m exhausted. Monday morning I have randori, afternoon physical preparation, Tuesday two randoris sessions and Wednesday two randoris sessions… People say that the Japanese are flexible, but not so much. We train hard and my friend and I are quite happy. On average ten to twenty randoris per day. It’s very good. »
July 27, 2024 – Paris Olympics. “The day is quite surprising. Luka pulls out his competition but I would never have imagined that Smetov would win. I thought his time had passed. I expected to see Luka in the final but not against Smetov. I saw Nagayama winning, Yang in the final… It’s the Games, there’s tension, there’s stakes. Smetov is a man of championships – and Olympic championships, even more visibly. Nagayama also lost to Garrigos in a somewhat controversial way.
In terms of refereeing, the rules are as they are. We’re in France, of course we have a bit of an advantage. It’s always like that with the host country. Afterwards, from my point of view the rules are really not great in terms of shidos, false attacks and non-combativity, it falls a bit quickly. You can win by doing crappy judo. And then all the rules of hansoku make I find a bit rubbish because it kills competitions. There are of course mistakes like the referee who says matte too early on Garrigos-Nagayama but otherwise it’s pretty decent.
The day of the U60kg category I’m in Osaka. We were visiting but suddenly we stopped to watch the competition. It’s not easy to live with. I’m grumpy because I’m really disappointed not to be there, to have missed this legendary championship that will not happen again in my career. »
September 2024 – In the meantime. « I started judo at six years old, at the ACBB where I am still. I started with Fernando Blazquez and Sebastian Radocvici. Over the years I met Sébastien Gaisset, Stéphane Masson, Jean-Christophe Allain, then Fernando Blazquez again. I now work with Romain Poussin as well as with Sébastien Calloud who teaches me a lot on the ground and who is also the club’s physical trainer.
In terms of studies, I went through a sports-studies program in Boulogne where I got a scientific baccalauréat with honors. I am in my fourth year at ESILV, an engineering school located in La Défense. I did my first three years in a normal curriculum and specialized in biotech for my fourth year, a year that I chose to split in view of the Olympic year. I am lucky that the school allows me to follow most of my courses remotely or even in replay and I try to be present for my practical work and exams.
If I could give advice to the Romain who tied his first white belt in 2008, I would say work hard, give it your all in everything you do and you will see. That was already my way of thinking when I was young. I did everything fully and was focused… Maybe if I could give this Romain one piece of advice it would be to enjoy those early years a little more. That’s something I only realized when Covid hit. I understood then that judo isn’t just about being serious. It’s also a great part of my life where I can have fun and have a good time. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that, at one time, going to judo was like going to prison. The truth is that I always took it very seriously. I wasn’t there to make friends. Over the years, I’m starting to understand that sometimes you can progress just as much and be just as good by being a little more open-minded…” – Interview by Anthony Diao, Spring-Summer 2024. Opening photo: ©Paco Lozano/JudoAKD.
A French version of this interview is available here.
More articles in English:
- JudoAKD#001 – Loïc Pietri – Pardon His French
- JudoAKD#002 – Emmanuelle Payet – This Island Within Herself
- JudoAKD#003 – Laure-Cathy Valente – Lyon, Third Generation
- JudoAKD#004 – Back to Celje
- JudoAKD#005 – Kevin Cao – Where Silences Have the Floor
- JudoAKD#006 – Frédéric Lecanu – Voice on Way
- JudoAKD#008 – Annett Böhm – Life is Lives
- JudoAKD#009 – Abderahmane Diao – Infinity of Destinies
- JudoAKD#010 – Paco Lozano – Eye of the Fighters
- JudoAKD#011 – Hans Van Essen – Mister JudoInside
- JudoAKD#021 – Benjamin Axus – Still Standing
- JudoAKD#023 – Andreea Chitu – She Remembers
- JudoAKD#024 – Malin Wilson – Come. See. Conquer.
- JudoAKD#026 – Amandine Buchard – Status and Liberty
- JudoAKD#027 – Norbert Littkopf (1944-2024), by Annett Boehm
Also in English:
- JudoAKDReplay#001 – Pawel Nastula – The Leftover (2017)
- JudoAKDReplay#002 – Gévrise Emane – Turn Lead into Bronze (2020)
- JudoAKDReplay#003 – Lukas Krpalek – The Best Years of a Life (2019)
- JudoAKDReplay#004 – How Did Ezio Become Gamba? (2015)
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