During the award ceremony it was the Dutch Anton Geesink, Olympic champion in 1964, who gave the medal to Douillet. Between victories and injuries On 30 September 1996, two months after the Olympic title captured in Atlanta, Douillet was seriously injured in the calf and the right shoulder in a motorbike accident. The long convalescence, and eight months of rehabilitation, actually reinvigorated the Frenchman and gave him new motivation after his gold medal: This accident rekindled my desire. After Atlanta, I had the impression of having made it. I had gained a lot... Then, after the accident, I had a new challenge: to become again first an athlete, then a performing athlete. Thus, he returned gradually to his ideal shape (approximately 125 kg) and joined again the competition, at the time of the Mediterranean Games, which took place in June 1997 in Bari, Italy. He made a good show and earned a medal by defeating the European champion, Selim Tataroğlu. More than this victory, it was the prospect of the world championships, organized in Paris, which intensified Douillet's return to the foreground. The judoka carried out serious preparations in hopes of obtaining a fourth world title. In the competition, Douillet qualified for the final by defeating once again the Turkish Selim Tataroğlu in the semi-finals. In the finals, he beat the Japanese Shinichi Shinohara by disqualification. This victory, giving him a third world crown (fourth with the Open title in 1995), tied Douillet with another Japanese athlete, Yasuhiro Yamashita, and closed a difficult post-Atlanta period marked not only by his motorbike accident, but also by financial problems related to bad investments. However, a pain in the shoulder forced him to withdraw once again from the tatamis after the world championship in Paris, and in August 1998, he was the victim of a distortion of the wrist, and withdrew from competition for several months. Return of "Goliath" Difficult return to competition In spite of almost two years of inactivity in competition, he was selected for the 1999 European Judo Championships in Bratislava. He had a sub-par performance there, taking only seventh place, letting his main competitors gain the podium. Nevertheless, the Frenchman started his preparation for a historic second Olympic title at the Sydney 2000 Summer Olympics. The principal stage of this preparation was the participation in the 1999 World Judo Championships in Birmingham. However, David Douillet underwent a large disappointment,