Buchard on rugby: “I have everything to prove.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buchard grew up both on the tatami and the rugby pitch, but as she reached cadet level, the elite competition eventually demanded a choice. Judo won and quickly became the foundation of a remarkably successful career.<\/p>\n
Buchard made her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020<\/a>, where she claimed silver in the -52kg category after a narrow defeat to Japanese rival Uta Abe<\/a> in the final. She also secured gold in the mixed team event, delivering France its first title in the discipline\u2019s Olympic debut, and defended that title at Paris 2024<\/a>, while also securing an individual bronze medal.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her resume also boasts four world championship bronze medals and two European championship titles, in 2021 and 2023.<\/p>\n That consistency has also carried its own burden, expectations, pressure, and weight of being among the favourites. Competing on home soil at Paris 2024 only intensified it all.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore the Olympic Games in Paris, my mind was not in a good place because I had a lot of pressure, a lot of stress,\u201d she told Olympics.com. \u201cThese Olympics were very hard. People expected me to win everything. Of course, I wanted it too, but the pressure was constant.\u201d<\/p>\n Seeking balance, Buchard found herself drawn back to a familiar place from her childhood.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be successful, I needed distance from judo. I started rugby again to settle my mind, and it was the best decision. I feel so good; new environment, new people, new challenge. I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n “[In rugby] I\u2019m starting from zero. I have no status, and that doesn\u2019t put pressure on me. On the contrary, I have everything to prove.\u201d<\/p>\n In September 2024, she left PSG Judo Club and later joined Stade Fran\u00e7ais, in October of that year, playing for the Pink Rockets rugby team, a move designed to support her dual-sport ambitions through the Olympic cycle.<\/p>\n The crossover, she explains, is not only compatible but actually quite mutually beneficial.<\/p>\n \u201cAs we saw in Grand Slam\u00a0Tbilisi [2025] and in Dushanbe,\u00a0I won with some techniques that I never did in competition, and this is because when I’m playing rugby, I do other movements. I have better reflexes. I’m feeling better in my body. I feel stronger physically.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t imagine judo without rugby, nor rugby without judo.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Buchard on rugby: “I have everything to prove.\u201d Buchard grew up both on the tatami and the rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-608998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}