Teddy Riner's candidacy for the presidential election: can the judoka go all the way?

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In France, could Teddy Riner really become its president one day? In September 2025, he already imagined himself playing the leading role: "If I enter politics tomorrow, it is not to run or have a ministerial post. For me, the best role, if I wanted to be someone in politics, is president."

For this, the Olympic champion has assets: symbol of success, very popular especially with the French, as measured by a polling institute. "The fact of being a pride of France, the fact of having won a certain number of competitions, the fact of giving the feeling that he is human pleases this segment of the electorate, rather young, rather to the left of the political spectrum, who today look more towards Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who can possibly say to themselves: 'well, why couldn't we be led to vote in favor of Teddy Riner?'", analyzes Jean-Daniel Levy, deputy director of Harris interactive.

A rather right-wing team

However, his proposals and the team he has put together lean more to the right: a former Minister of Health under Emmanuel Macron, a communications manager who worked for the Republicans and ministerial cabinets during the last five-year term, and an entrepreneur, Philippe Verran, who worked for En Marche and Horizons, the party of Édouard Philippe. He will be responsible for finding funding.

But without a political party to support him, will the judoka manage to raise the necessary funds to campaign? In general, it takes several million euros. "Going to get money from donors requires teams, requires activists. In the same way, 500 signatures from mayors are needed for the candidacy to be validated by the Constitutional Council. Here too, it requires troops to call hundreds of mayors and for, in the lot, there to be 500 who agree to put their initials", recalls Neïla Latrous, editor-in-chief of the Politics department of France Télévisions.

Abroad, the footballer George Weah and the comedian Volodymyr Zelensky are among these popular figures in their country, who have become heads of state.