“My mother wanted my brother and me to practice a combat sport, and it was judo.” It was almost by chance that Sarah-Léonie Cysique came to the mat—but chance can lead you in the right direction. By 2017, 15 years after she began, she’d entered France’s prestigious National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance (INSEP). Even so, her relationship with her discipline hasn’t always been easy.

A native of Sarcelles, on the northern outskirts of Paris, the teenage Sarah was torn between trying other sports and walking away from judo so she could enjoy being young, like her friends. “While they were all celebrating each other’s birthdays, I was training and competing,” she recalls. “But my parents always encouraged me to stay with judo,” she says. “And when I look back at my career, I can only thank them for it.”

In her early tournaments, Sarah won a series of decisive victories, giving her a taste for victory—and prompting her teammates to call her “Scissors” Cysique.

But the real turning point came at France’s Espoirs training centre in Reims. Convinced she was actually left-handed, one of the coaches there urged her to stop working opponents with her right. This radical change took Sarah to a whole new level. She finished a very promising fifth at the 2019 World Championships and has become a standout in the women’s 57kg category.

She delivered brilliantly on that promise at Tokyo 2020—her first Olympic outing—winning the silver medal in individual competition and gold in the mixed team event. Qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the judoka took home bronze, her third Olympic medal, on 29 July 2024, after defeating Georgian Eteri Liparteliani with an ippon.

“After I got my baccalaureate in science, I started a degree in the science and techniques of sport and exercise (STAPS), but I left in the first year.” The move worried her mother. “She didn’t think it was a good idea for me to leave school,” Sarah recalls, "so she was reassured when I joined the SNCF Athletes Programme, which gives me a long-term plan for the future. It reassured me too—and it took a weight off my shoulders. Now I can compete without worrying that my athletic career will end overnight.”

“As an SNCF employee, I’m guaranteed to build experience and a solid skillset within a few years. And I like being a customer care agent. My coworkers and I team up with Railway Security—we’re kind of the “super heroes” who help customers at peak periods or when there’s a problem at a Paris region station.”

I see myself staying at SNCF and building my career, maybe as a sniffer dog handler—why not? I’d find that fascinating.