Olympics-Judo medals spark French fan fervour at Paris Games

By John Irish and Vincent Daheron

PARIS (Reuters) - If the judo dojo at the foot of the Eiffel Tower was anything to go by, then France's Olympic delegation is set to have some wild days in the next two weeks after its two representatives won medals on Saturday to ecstatic cheering.

Under the watchful eye of President Emmanuel Macron, who had just sat on the side of the tatami minutes before, Luka Mkheidze, who was given refugee status in 2010 after fleeing Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region, won the host nation's first silver medal, losing to his Kazakh opponent.

The deafening roar from the 8,000 spectators even after Mkheidze lost was the culmination of several hours of good-natured, devout support for Mkheidze in the under 60 kg category and Shirine Boukli in the under 48 kg category who earlier secured a bronze medal.

"It was magical. The public is insane. The supporters give us positive waves and give the desire to go and massacre everything," she told reporters. "I'm so proud."

The temporary stadium overlooking Paris' most famous landmark was an intimidating cauldron for the opposing judokas.

The French names were constantly repeated, cries of "The fans are here with you" echoed from each corner and even rousing chants of the Marseillaise national anthem left few in doubt who they wanted to win.

In his semi-final victory, Mkheidze fed off the crowd and pumped the French flag on his blue judogi given the home fans even more voice.

"The atmosphere is like watching a football match," said Laure, who had come up to Paris to watch the day's judo.

She was one of many, who had braved the rain - and at times mud - earlier in the day, queuing to get in ahead of busy evening schedule.

But in the dojo fans ardently waved tricolore flags and pictures of their favourites, while the organisers warmed them up with well-known French songs to get them singing and dancing.

Big names were also there to back the judo team. French soccer legend Zinedine Zidane even asked to speak to Boukli after she won the home nation's first medal, Boukli told reporters.

"For him the support is very important," Mkheidze's sister Veriko Pestel, told reporters.

"In Tokyo there were no supporters because of COVID and that affected him. With everyone supporting him today that gave him strength."

(Additional reporting by Zhifan Liu; Editing by Hugh Lawson)