Last season's two magnificent victories at the French team championships - thanks to the cadet girls, led by Emma Benghezal, who is currently in the process of recovering from her summer's European and world championships, and the junior boys, after a crazy scenario that unraveled in the final seconds - were justly acclaimed. Winning two national youth titles in the same season is an unusual feat. All the more reason for JC Chilly-Mazarin Morangis to put its faith in its young talents for its return to the Judo Pro League - after having won the first edition in agreement with FLAM 91 under the name "Paris-Saclay", as Abderrahim Alaoui, head of the Essonne club's high-level teams, explains. "After discussions with club president Bruno Morel, we decided to bet on them at the start of this Olympiad. Bringing promising young judokas up to the highest level is part of the club's DNA. This Judo Pro League has the enormous advantage of enabling them to compete against the best judokas in France - with whom they don't train, as many of them are at a provincial "Pôle France" - and to situate themselves, the juniors, in relation to the best seniors". The example set by Joan-Benjamin Gaba, the Chiroquois who became Olympic vice-champion this summer, is certainly echoing in everyone's minds.

This policy once again proved its worth, with third-year junior Peter Jean winning the national bronze medal at the French 1st division senior championships in early November. Convalescing since Chalon-sur-Saône, the 2024 French junior champion was missed by the Chiroquois team in their defeat by US Orléans Loiret Judo Jujitsu. But Bruno Morel's team will still have plenty of talented juniors to tempt them into the quarter-finals at home against neighbors Sainte-Geneviève Sports Judo. Currently in 8th place, Judo Club Chilly Mazarin must win to continue their adventure.

But who are these juniors who could well be heard of at the highest level in a few years' time? They include second-year Clémentine Lenoir (-57kg), silver medallist at the Cormelles-le-Royal Excellence tournament in mid-October, and Jeanne Gastrin (-63kg), bronze medallist at the 2024 French Cadet Championships and winner of her two Judo Pro League bouts, against a national junior medallist and the 2024 Île-de-France seniors champion! Quite a performance for the first-year junior who has just joined the Pôle France in Châtenay-Malabry. And in the men's category? Third-year junior Marin Chabon (-66kg), a fighter with explosive shoulder movements, Livio Pistol (-73kg), a judoka from Guadeloupe who arrived in mainland France this season and came third at the 2023 French cadet championships, or Kassim Brosseau in the same weight category, a resident of the Strasbourg France center who has just won the Cormelles-le-Royal tournament, thanks to a devastating uchi-mata.

A group of youngsters "who already have a winning culture", says Abderrahim Alaoui, who knows he can count on this positive and conquering state of mind to face the favourites SGS, secure a place in the quarter-finals, and try to reach the Final Four, JC Chilly-Mazarin Morangis' objective for this Judo Pro League 2024-2025.