by Cichorei Kano Sun Dec 01, 2013 12:18 pm
Also noteworthy is that Jocelyne Triadou became the 2nd European woman (after British Ellen Cobb) to be graded to the high rank of 8th dan. Triadou was a women's judo pioneer being born in 1954 and winning 5 European judo titles. This puts her at number 5 of 6 in the all-time list of female 8th dan holders.
With Triadou and Rougé, also 4 additional males were promoted to 8th dan (Pierre Albertini, Marc Alexander, Fabien Canu, Bernard Tchoulouyan).
In conclusion, you chances are statistically higher to become 8th dan as a member of the French Judo Federation than becoming a Woohooshidan on the Judo Forum !
Congrats to all these fine judoka, many of who have made important collaborations. Bernard Tchoullouyan (nicknamed "TchouTchou) impressed us during the 1979 European Championships with his seoi-nage, and also won a bronze the next year during the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
Jean-Luc Rougé is obviously world famous. He is 64 years old, so very young for a 9th dan, but he has immense record. He was the first French world champion in 1975 in Vienna and this had the same effect in France as Geesink had in Holland. Judo in France became immensely popular. I was very inspired by Rougé in those days and he was my favorite judo athlete, certainly with Ruska no longer around. He was also impressive during the 1979 European championships and he won two medals (silver and bronze) during the 1979 World championships in Paris in a very memorable championships. Hopes were great until he came out against a still relatively unknown Japanese guy by the name of Yamashita who beat his ass and threw him from the left to the right leaving Rougé visibly in shock; he could literally not believe that anyone would be able to do this again him, a world championship. At that point obviously, the world did not yet know what kind of phenomenon Yamashita would grow to be.
After his career, successfully entered the administration of the both the FFJDA and of the EJU and is also involved in the IJF. Last time I met him in person was during the world championships in Rotterdam in 2009 and he was towering over him. Most athlete data sheets list him as being 6'3" but he looked taller to me. It's only when you are close to him that you realize how wide his shoulders still are. Rougé was a fairly technical jûdôka having harai-goshi as his favorite. He looked inspired by Ruska, also being physically strong and was one of the jûdôka of those days who was able lift most weight coming second only to Kuznetsov.