And the hits just keep on coming at the Paris Olympics. This time, quite literally.
In the latest controversy to befall the 2024 Summer Games, a Georgian judo competitor decided to take his frustrations out on his victorious French opponent, leading to his immediate disqualification.
The disqualification cost Georgian judo star Guram Tushishvili a chance at the bronze medal, according to the U.K. Daily Mail.
Tushishvili, 29, was fighting Frenchman Teddy Riner in the quaterfinals. Riner, who won a gold medal in 2012 and 2016, was the favorite against the Georgian in the 100kg category, even though Tushishvili had won silver at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
Riner landed a ippon, or match-ending move, on Tushishvili during the contest. (As per the Olympics’ website on what an ippon is: “Awarded for a throw that places the opponent on their back with strength, speed and control. It can also be awarded for pinning the opponent down for 20 seconds or forcing the opponent into submission with a choke or joint lock.” You will be required to know this on the test.)
Tushishvili, seen here in white, decided to send home his discomfort quite literally, first pushing his opponent up via his crotch with his leg.
Then, once Riner was knocked down, Tushishvili stood over him and got in his face, then knocked him down again as he tried to get up.
ツシシビリとリネールの幼稚な争い
🇬🇪 Guram Tushishvili vs 🇫🇷 Teddy Riner #柔道 #JUDO pic.twitter.com/6kjcfrlCa1
— (@DDDEmz) August 2, 2024
Are you watching the Olympics?
“What is this aggressiveness? This is not OK, this will get Georgia disqualified,” one commentator on cable channel Eurosport said.
“He will be completely out of the tournament,” another said. “He will be completely out of the tournament.”
While the two shook hands, the damage was already done.
“Following the incident that took place at the end of the quarter-final between Teddy Riner (FRA) and Guram Tushishvili (GEO) in the +100 kg weight category, the behaviour of the Georgian judoka was against the ‘spirit of judo,’ an ad hoc disciplinary commission was called immediately together to investigate the situation,” the International Judo Federation, which is the governing body for the Olympics judo competition.
The statement said the federation had taken three decisions.
First, Tushishvili is ineligible to continue in the individual competition, which takes him out of competition for the bronze medal; he still would have been eligible via the double-elimination format.
Second, he was suspended from Saturday’s mixed team event, dealing a blow to Georgia’s hopes in that category.
Finally, he could be facing a much longer suspension than just being disqualified from the Olympics.
“Guram Tushishvili is suspended from participating in any international judo competition until the IJF Disciplinary Commission meets to give a final decision. Further investigations will be conducted to determine what happened,” the statement read.
As he should have been, given the utterly superfluous nature of the act. It was the latest disqualification or ejection scandal to hit an Olympics which has seen no shortage of them.
A Brazilian swimmer, for instance, was allegedly sent home after she spent a night out on the town away from the athlete’s village without notifying the team. (She alleges there was some kind of harassment involved, although the details are far less clear than her un-cleared visit, which was available on social media for a time.)
A rugby player for the United Kingdom, meanwhile, was sent back after a social media conversation which allegedly included racial remarks was leaked online.
Even judges have gotten into the mix, with a surfing judge from Australia was sent home following an “inappropriate” picture of him with members of the Australian team at the games.
And perhaps the biggest scandal at the Olympics — well, at least one that doesn’t involve Dionysian mockery of Christianity — involves who isn’t being disqualified: two intersex boxers who have male chromosomes but female genitalia and who were barred from the International Boxing Association world championships in 2023, including one, Algerian Imane Khelif, that pummeled her first opponent into submission with just a couple of punches and 46 seconds elapsed time.
We still have a week to go, too.
What’s next? An Australian boxer revealed to be a kangaroo after species testing? Japanese gymnast turns out to be one of those dancing robots Honda used to make? LMFAO sent home by organizers for their refusal to apologize for party rocking?
Seven days. Unlimited possibilities. Sadly, none of them are apparently inspiring or unifying. But at least we can laugh at, and then bemoan, the wreckage along the way.
