00:00Judo star Teddy Rinner wants to be the next president of France.
00:05The 37-year-old Olympic champion announced his bid on social media on Monday.
00:12The news comes as polls show the French public largely split
00:16between the far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the far-right Marine Japan.
00:23Rinner says he's positioning himself as neither right-wing nor left-wing.
00:28Instead, he says he wants to be a president who brings people together.
00:34Campaigning for next year's election is taking place in a tense social climate,
00:38with weekly protest marches drawing huge crowds across the country.
00:44I'm running for president to show that we can get France back on its feet, Rinner said.
00:50We're capable of achieving great things together.
00:54The five-time Olympic gold medalist was born in the French territory of Guadeloupe
00:59and raised in Paris.
01:02He needs signatures from 500 elected officials in order to stand.
