Gévrise Emane

About Gévrise Emane

Born in Cameroon, Gévrise Émane moved to France when she was two and a half years old. She grew up in Neuilly-Plaisance in Seine-Saint-Denis, where she started judo quite late in middle school at the age of 13. She quickly progressed in junior-level competitions and joined INSEP in 2000 after reaching the podium at the junior French championships.

It was in 2003 that the judoka made her mark by achieving her first podium finishes in the World Cup, notably at the Paris Tournament. She also earned the title of French champion and participated in the European team championship victory of the French women’s team. In 2005, she received her first international award at the World Championships in Egypt. In her first participation, she qualified for the final but had to yield to the Dutch Edith Bosch and settled for the silver medal.

From then on, Gévrise Émane confirmed the potential seen in previous years by winning all major international competitions, starting with the Euro 2006 held in Tampere. Along with her teammates from the French women’s team, she won the world team title in Paris at the end of 2006. At the beginning of 2007, she retained her continental crown before winning the world title in Rio de Janeiro in September.

Since 2009, Gévrise has been competing in the lower category: -63 kg. The goal is to earn the only medal missing from her collection (Olympic medal) and to enhance her record in a different category. She won the prestigious Paris Tournament (February 2010 and 2011) in the -63 kg category, as well as the European Championships in 2011 (in Istanbul). In August 2011, four years after her world title in the -70 kg category, she became the world champion in the -63 kg category by defeating the current world number one, Yoshie Ueno, in the final. In April 2012, she won a second title in the -63 kg category and a few weeks later, she officially secured her selection for the London Olympic Games. In London, she was eliminated in the quarter-finals by the Mongolian Munkhzaya Tsedevsuren, but thanks to the repechage, she won the bronze medal.

Gévrise Émane is a cornerstone of the French judo team; since 2003, she has been one of the icons of world judo. She has entered the pantheon of international judo as the only judoka, male or female, to have doubled her world title by moving down a category, an unprecedented achievement to date.