France has entered men in Olympic judo since the sport was introduced in 1964 in Tokyo. The country's judoka have performed admirably over the years, and have taken home a total of 26 medals, but only six golds.
The men would like to improve on both numbers at the London Summer Olympics, especially the latter one. Their best shot at gold is a star in the Heavyweight class, Teddy Riner.
The following list includes brief profiles of the seven men who will take to the tatami for France in London:
EXTRA-LIGHTWEIGHT: Sofiane Milous is a 24-year-old judoka that seems to be realizing his potential of late. A two-time European Championships medalist, there will be a number of top competitors in the way of a medal-podium finish for him, though, including Rishod Sobirov of Uzbekistan and Japan's Hiroaki Hiraoka.
HALF-LIGHTWEIGHT: David Larose will be looking for a breakthrough performance for France. However, there are many more accomplished judoka at 66 kilograms that he will have to defeat to earn a medal. Among them are Japan's Masashi Ebinuma and Russia's Musa Mogushkov.
LIGHTWEIGHT: France's Ugo Legrand is an up-and-coming competitor at 73 kilograms. Legrand won his first European Championships title earlier this year, and took a bronze at last year's World Championships. He will have to defeat some other superb judoka to realize his Olympic dream. Among the cream of the crop at the weight are South Korea's Wang Ki-Chun and Riki Nakaya of Japan.
HALF-MIDDLEWEIGHT: Alain Schmitt will represent France at 81 kilograms. He has been a solid performer for a number of years for the country, but will be hard pressed to medal in London in what is a very deep, talented weight class. The best include Brazil's Leandro Guilheiro-a two-time Olympic bronze medalist at 73 kilograms, Kim Jae-Bum of South Korea-the 2008 Olympic silver medalist in this weight class, and Azerbaijan's Elnur Mammadli-the Olympic gold medalist in Beijing in the Lightweight class.
MIDDLEWEIGHT: Romain Buffet is France's entrant in the Middleweight class, and will find stiff competition throughout the field in London, especially in the imposing figure of Greece's two-time world titlist, Ilias Iliadis.
HALF-HEAVYWEIGHT: Thierry Fabre will take to the tatami for France in London. If he is going to achieve a medal-podium finish, he will probably have to get by stalwarts at 100 kilograms like Takamasa Anai of Japan and Kazakhstan's Maxim Rakov.
HEAVYWEIGHT: France's Teddy Riner is arguably the most dominant judoka in the world right now. Still only 23 years old, Riner is already a six-time world champion. He finished with a rather disappointing bronze medal four years ago in Beijing, though, and will be looking for redemption in London.
Patrick Hattman covers the Olympics for the Yahoo! Contributor Network. He lived more than a decade in Japan and enjoys learning about the sport of judo.
