The key facts

  • Teddy Riner, a five-time Olympic champion and 11-time world champion, announced his candidacy in France's presidential election in April
  • The candidate's video has been viewed more than 28 million times; according to an Ifop poll, 22% said they could vote for him within a day
  • Riner positions himself as 'neither left nor right,' but his candidacy could complicate the centrist path to the runoff

An athlete with no party and no program enters the presidential race

Five-time Olympic champion and 11-time world judo champion Teddy Riner has announced his candidacy for president of France in the April election. The 37-year-old native of Guadeloupe has no public political experience, does not represent a party and has not yet presented a program. All his campaign has at this point is the slogan 'La France qu'on aime' ('The France we love'), a social media address and a visit to a hospital in Seine-Saint-Denis, a suburb of Paris.

Popularity that cannot be dismissed

Riner is one of the most popular people in modern France, regularly topping polls as an embodiment of 'national values.' His campaign video, shot in a restrained 'presidential' style against a backdrop of books and the French flag, has been viewed more than 28 million times on Instagram and X, 14.5 million of them on Instagram alone. According to an Ifop poll conducted within a day of the announcement, 22% of respondents said they 'could' vote for him.

Why the political class has to take him seriously

The reason for the attention to the novice candidate is the state of French politics: the center is completely fragmented, and no candidate has so far been able to inspire voters the way the leaders of the far flanks do — Marine Le Pen on the right and Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the left, who, according to the BBC, currently look like the favorites to reach the runoff in May. Riner says he is 'neither left nor right,' wants to 'unite the country' and 'put money back in people's pockets,' while opposing both 'racists' and 'thugs intimidating people on our streets.' According to the outlet, on economics and law-and-order issues he leans more to the right, but as a Black man from the Caribbean he is also strong on the issue of racism; his position is somewhere in the center, against extremes.

Who benefits — and who has doubts

Riner's problem is that the center is already extremely crowded: about a dozen candidates are active there — from the socialists-backed Raphaël Glucksmann to Bruno Retailleau of the Republicans, while former prime ministers Édouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal have yet to gain momentum. Christine Lagarde, who leaves her post as head of the ECB in February, is being mentioned as a possible new player. Another candidate in this niche dilutes the ratings of the others and raises Mélenchon's chances of reaching the runoff — which is why the leader of La France Insoumise greeted the announcement with evident delight: 'We know how it works: neither right nor left means not left,' he told journalists on Friday. The second sincerely pleased figure was President Emmanuel Macron, who called Riner 'a great champion' and noted that politics 'does not belong to professionals.' Riner, however, responded that he regards this praise as a 'poisoned chalice': 'I am not the president's messenger, I am not a Macronist,' he said on Saturday.

What comes next

Skeptics admit the campaign could fizzle out after a short period of excitement, but they acknowledge that if it does not, the electoral arithmetic will have to be urgently recalculated — and it will not be the centrists who benefit. The main questions remain open: a concrete program, a team, and positions on pension reform, education, the cost of living, the national debt, the rise of populism and Russia's war in Ukraine. Riner himself says he never does anything halfway — 'otherwise he would not have become an Olympic champion.'

French judo Olympic champion smiling and holding a medal during his participation at the 2024 Paris Olympics.Image source, Reuters
Image caption,

Five-times Olympic champion Teddy Riner is one of France's most popular athletes

France's five-time Olympic judo champion Teddy Riner appears in a video displayed on a smartphone and released on his Instagram social media accountImage source, Getty Images
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Teddy Riner's video has attracted 14.5 million views on Instagram alone

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, member of parliament from the French far-right Rassemblement National, wearing a pink jacket and smiling where at a lectern in a campaign event in October.Image source, Reuters
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Hard-right leader Marine Le Pen currently leads the polls in the race to be France's next president

A demonstrator hides behind a car burning during a demonstration in Lyon, France.Image source, Reuters
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Protesters have for weeks taken to the streets in France over wages, the cost of living and public services

French President Emmanuel Macron (R) awards French judoka Teddy Riner (L) with the National Order of Merit during an award ceremony at the end of the parade of French athletes who competed in the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris on September 14, 2024.Image source, Pool/AFP via Getty Images
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President Emmanuel Macron is among the few politicians who appears genuinely pleased by Riner's decision to run

Solange Alexandre - a woman's profile in a sepia imageMan with his face covered and wearing a khaki hatSabrine Kharbach, spokesperson for the Student Union, French CGT labour union leader Sophie Binet, and Suzanne Nijdam, president of Fage, attend a demonstration in Paris as part of a nationwide day of strikes and protests over wages, the cost of living and public services called by French labour unions, and joined by high school and university students demanding better school conditions, in France