She announced it herself on her social media, and the club passed it on: Amandine Buchard will wear the colours of AC Bobigny 93 next season. At 31, the Olympic judo medallist is pressing on with her dual project aimed at the Los Angeles Games, but she is changing club and, above all, division.

Thirteen matches, ten starts: a first season that counts

Committed to this gamble since October 2024, Amandine Buchard had joined Stade Français because the multi-sport club could host both her disciplines. In the shirt of the Pink Rockets, the Parisian women’s section, her 2025-2026 record in Élite 2 looks nothing like a token appearance: thirteen matches, ten of them as a starter, 915 minutes played and four tries.

That is a little over 70 minutes per game on average. And a rare versatility for a player who came from another sport: she has worn five different numbers in the backline, from 9 to 15. Her tries came against USAP, Bayonne (a brace) and Rennes. Stade Français, for their part, finished sixth of the ten Élite 2 sides.

Bobigny, one division up, but not the top of the table

The step up is real: Stade Français play in Élite 2, Bobigny in Élite 1, the top tier of French women’s rugby.

What remains is to measure what she is joining. Bobigny finished sixth of ten last season, with seven wins, one draw, ten defeats and a points difference of -172 (245 scored, 417 conceded). Romagnat, Stade Toulousain and Stade Bordelais finished on 79, 76 and 70 points, against 33 for the Paris-region club. Buchard is therefore moving up a level, into a side aiming at survival rather than a final.

“Proud to be joining AC Bobigny 93 and looking forward to taking on this new challenge alongside the team,” the player wrote when announcing her signing.

First appointment on 25 October at Toulon

Her Élite 1 debut has a date: Sunday 25 October at Toulon, against Toulon Provence Méditerranée, for the opening round of the 2026-2027 season. An opponent within her reach, ninth of ten last year with 580 points conceded.

The regular season will end on 6 June. The championship will bring together Blagnac, Bobigny, Grenoble Amazones, La Rochelle, the LOU, Montpellier, Romagnat, Stade Bordelais, Stade Toulousain and Toulon Provence Méditerranée. La Rochelle, the Élite 2 champions, replace Lille, who finished bottom last season.

What rugby has already cost her in judo

The gamble has a price, and the bill arrived this summer. On 7 July, France Judo confirmed that Buchard would not compete at the World Championships in Baku, scheduled from 4 to 11 October: she had not attended the compulsory training camps, which she had chosen to devote to rugby.

“We took the collective decision not to select her for these World Championships. The dual project is valued, but it forces difficult choices,” explained Frédérique Jossinet, the federation’s chief executive. France will therefore field no judoka in the -52 kg category in Baku, with Blandine Pont named as reserve.

The sacrifice can be measured in her honours list. At 31, Buchard is an Olympic silver medallist from Tokyo in 2021 and a bronze medallist from Paris in 2024 in the -52 kg category, a double Olympic champion in the mixed team event, a five-time World Championship bronze medallist and a double European champion. In April, she took another continental silver.

The obstacle that remains

The objective has not changed: Olympic qualification in both disciplines in Los Angeles in 2028. But to this day, Amandine Buchard has never been selected for the France sevens team. Between a club championship, even Élite 1, and the national sevens side, that is where the real leap lies, with tackling as the main technical work in progress.