Clarisse Agbegnenou
Six world titles and an Olympic revenge
- Born
- October 25, 1992, Rennes, France
- Nationality
France- Height
- 164 cm (5′5″)
- Stance
- Left
- Style
- Osoto gari specialist
- Weight
- 63 kg
- Active
- 2010–present
- Status
- Active · age 33
The medals
2020 Olympic gold (+2 mixed-team golds), 6 world titles
The story
larisse Agbegnenou, born in Rennes to Togolese parents, joined France's INSEP training centre as a teenager and won her first world title at 63 kg in 2014, then five more between 2017 and 2023, more than any other Frenchwoman. Her rivalry with Slovenia's Tina Trstenjak shaped her career: Trstenjak beat her in the Rio 2016 Olympic final, Agbegnenou beat her in the 2017 world final and again, in golden score, for Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021, where she also helped France win the first mixed-team title. Her 2019 world final against Miku Tashiro lasted about 11 minutes. She took Olympic bronze at home in Paris in 2024, plus a second team gold. A graduate of HEC Paris, she was still competing in 2026. Early in her career she had a brief brush with the law.
Tap a technique with an arrow to learn how it works.
- Olympic champion, 63 kg (2020)
- Olympic mixed-team champion (2020, 2024)
- World champion, 63 kg (2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023)
- European champion, 63 kg (2013, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2020)
- L'Équipe French Sportswoman of the Year (2018, 2019, 2021)
- France's flag bearer at Tokyo 2020 (with Samir Aït Saïd)
Defining matches
- 2016LOSSvs Tina Trstenjak (Rio Olympic 63 kg final)
- 2017WINvs Tina Trstenjak (World Championships final, Budapest)
- 2019WINvs Miku Tashiro (World final at the Nippon Budokan, about 11 minutes long)
- 2021WINvs Tina Trstenjak (Tokyo 2020 Olympic 63 kg final, golden score)
Agbegnenou's osoto gari feeds off constant forward pressure: keep the opponent moving backward so their weight sits on the heels, then step in deep and reap. Her long golden-score wins show that conditioning is a technique; if you can still attack at minute ten, the other player usually cannot.
