At six feet, eight inches, Teddy Riner is used to standing tall.
After Friday's final day of judo competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the French judoka now officially stands tall at the pinnacle of his sport.
Riner, a five-time world champion who was forced to settle for a bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, defeated Russia's Aleksander Mikhaylin to win gold in the men's heavyweight division (100 kilograms and above) on Friday at the ExCeL Centre, completing his ascension to the top of the judo world.
As it turned out, Riner didn't even need to secure a throw to claim the gold, as Mikhaylin incurred three penalties for passivity over the course of the bout, giving Riner a waza-ari worth 10 points. Riner did nearly score on an uchi mata (inner thigh throw), but Mikhaylin was able to avoid the throw. He was unable to secure one of his own, however, which enabled Riner, a crowd favorite at the ExCeL Centre, to walk away with the gold.
Despite the loss, Mikhaylin added to an extraordinarily successful Olympics for Russia in judo, a favorite sport of Vladimir Putin. Under Putin's watchful gaze, Russians captured five medals in judo in these Olympics, with Mikhaylin's silver added to three golds (more than any other nation) and one bronze.
In the women's heavyweight division (78 kilograms and above), Idalys Ortiz made history when she became the first female judoka to win gold in the division while representing a nation other than China or Japan. The Cuban judoka defeated Japan's Mika Sugimoto in a bout that went to the judges' decision.
China's Tong Wen (a pre-Olympic favorite for the gold) shared bronze medal honors with Karina Bryant of Great Britain in the women's heavyweight division, while Brazil's Rafael Silva and Germany's Andreas Toelzer won bronze in men's heavyweight.
