Representing Guinea, she makes history on a regular basis, winning medals and climbing rankings in ways her country’s judo team have not seen before. It’s inspiring for her teammates and for the younger judoka still formulating their sporting goals.
At the 2026 Upper Austria Grand Prix she claimed an historic victory, winning gold for the first time for any Guinean judoka on the IJF circuit. With the Olympic qualification period set to begin in just a few weeks time, at the Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam, Branser’s timing is just about perfect. However, at 33 most judoka have retired or would be planning to do so imminently. Marie Branser has no such thoughts, yet.
“I don’t feel like I am done. My first Olympics was like a childhood dream.” Marie represented Congo at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021. She flew the flag of Guinea in Paris in 2024. “In the lead up to Paris, for my second Games, I felt it might be the end. I changed my coach just 3 months before Paris and we didn’t have time to work as we wanted to, in this new situation. Both of us felt we weren’t finished and had lots to do together. I wanted one more year to prepare.
Then I had some personal changes too and found I wanted to commit even more. I am finding I can still process goals well. I wanted a grand prix medal and got one and I said after Linz that I still wanted more.”
The gold medal in Austria was more than important? “This is history being made for Guinea, which means a lot to me. My parents lived there and my grandparents worked there too. Even in their current home in Germany, there is always so much around us that is from Africa. The connection is strong and I am very happy to open new doors to possibility for all of us.
Africa is progressing. Everything there is like a family; athletes look after each other from all nations, not just their own. Giving that medal to the African Judo Union means giving it to the African judo family and that means so much to me.
Everyone supports me from the heart. We don’t have the budget to do all we would like but still they are always right behind me. There is hope for young African girls and that medal in Linz was special, on a special day for all women and girls in African judo, in African sport."
"It’s been a long road to this point. My message to the young African girls is to never give up on their dreams. All is possible and I hope there will be many medals for Africa in the future.”
Marie will next compete in Johannesburg in June and will then come back to the WJT, competing at the brand new Lausanne Grand Slam in August.