Creator credit recorded on the linked source page: Claire-France Thévenon · CC BY-SA 4.0
Claire-France Thévenon
“Panda”
Source: jiujitsulegacy.comFrench fourth-dan judoka who first competed in BJJ at purple belt and went on to win black belt bronze at the 2022 and 2023 IBJJF Worlds.
Biography
Sources for this profile
Wikipedia, article on Claire-France Thévenon, rendered 21 October 2026 (page last edited 18 October 2026)(opens in a new tab)
She is French by nationality, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt competitor and instructor, and a fourth-dan judo black belt.
Where in the source: Infobox: Nationality French
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Her Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt came from Olivier Michaïlesco in 2018.
Where in the source: Career: black belt from Michaïlesco
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Louis taught her at his dojo Kodokan Paris 15, and she competed in the first division of the French judo nationals as a heavyweight.
Where in the source: Career: Kodokan Paris 15
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As a purple belt she reached the European Open final in 2014 and 2015, and in the jujitsu ne-waza format took silver at the 2014 world championship in Paris and the 2015 one in Bangkok.
Where in the source: Career: finals of the European Open
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She joined MK Team in 2017 and won the 2017 European Championship at brown belt in the medium-heavyweight division, beating Jessica de Andrade in the final; at brown belt she also took bronze at the IBJJF Worlds and the 2018 European Open.
Where in the source: Career: 2017 European Champion
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In 2019 she reached the final of the Abu Dhabi World Professional Championship, taking silver against Gabrieli Pessanha, and that year also won silver at the European No-Gi, silver at the European Championship, bronze at the Pan Championship, and the UWW World No-Gi grappling title.
Where in the source: Career: reached the final of the Abu Dhabi
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In 2022 she joined the Infinity Combat MMA gym and affiliated her own academy Panda Supa Crew to it; at her first Brazilian Nationals that year she won super-heavyweight silver, including a rear-naked-choke submission of Carina Santi, 16 points to 0.
Where in the source: Career: Infinity Combat
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At black belt she won bronze at the IBJJF World Championship in 2022, in the super-heavyweight division, and again in 2023.
Where in the source: Career: bronze at the 2023 World
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At black belt she took European Open silver in 2019, 2022 and 2023, won the Abu Dhabi Continental European Pro in 2020, and took UWW European Gi grappling gold in 2021 and the French national grappling title in 2020.
Where in the source: Championships: 2nd Place IBJJF European Open
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Her listed instructor lineage runs from Mitsuyo Maeda through Carlos Gracie, Helio Gracie, Flavio Behring and Olivier Michaïlesco to her.
Where in the source: Instructor lineage: Flavio Behring
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She won bronze at the 2022 IBJJF World Championship at black belt.
Where in the source: Championships: 3rd Place IBJJF World Championship
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Inverted Gear blog, Meet the Pandas interview with Claire-France Thévenon by Daniël Bertina, 10 January 2019(opens in a new tab)
She began judo at nine, as one of several siblings who all trained in it, and says she loved it from her first session on the mat.
Where in the source: Q: How did you get your start; nine years old
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Her first teacher, Bruno Louis, was a sixth-dan judoka who favoured traditional forms and ne-waza, also trained in traditional jiu-jitsu, and began blending BJJ techniques into his judo; she credits him with teaching her that martial arts is a lifelong path of learning.
Where in the source: Q: How did you find BJJ; old school judoka
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Louis invited her to a BJJ seminar run for the French Judo Federation by Olivier Michaïlesco; she was overwhelmed, realised she knew nothing about guard or inversions, and Michaïlesco became her BJJ teacher, a relationship she says has lasted since.
Where in the source: Q: How did you find BJJ; BJJ mestre
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She describes French judo ground work as aimed at quick pins and taught as fixed linear techniques, and says BJJ filled the gap by adding adaptation against resisting opponents and the grip and balance principles she knew from standing judo.
Where in the source: Q: Can you describe how BJJ was different; filled that void
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Her first weapon in BJJ was deep half guard, which she says was a judo reflex, because trapping a leg there stops a pin and brings a standing restart.
Where in the source: Q: first weapon; Deep half guard
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Experienced from judo competition, she skipped white and blue belt competitions and started competing in BJJ at purple belt; she credits early success partly to her heavier weight and athletic background.
Where in the source: Q: active competitor; I started at purple
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She says all her BJJ belts came from Michaïlesco of MK Team. She describes him as a third-degree black belt under Flavio Behring who began his own BJJ training at the Cercle Tissier academy; after a falling-out there, MK Team became independent and by her account had about 25 affiliated schools in France.
Where in the source: Q: lineage; Flavio Behring
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As of January 2019 she trained and taught full time at MK Team Paris, handled part of the academy business side, sat on its directional staff, and worked with a mental coach on visualization.
Where in the source: Q: full time; both training and teaching
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Among her outside interests, she studied cinema and wrote for a few websites, including Jits.fr.
Where in the source: Q: for fun in Paris; studied cinema
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She names her 2017 brown belt win at the European championship in Lisbon, decided by an ippon seoi with her whole team present, as a memorable match, and a black belt loss to Welsh athlete Ffion Davies in Dublin as a hard, instructive fight.
Where in the source: Q: Which match taught you the most; ippon seoi
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Jiu Jitsu Legacy, interview with Claire-France Thevenon before ADWPJJC13 (page last updated 15 February 2022; Wikipedia dates the interview 6 November 2021)(opens in a new tab)
She said she reached the final at the 2019 Abu Dhabi World Pro, one of her best results, and that the 2021 edition would be her fifth appearance there.
Where in the source: Q: first time participating; went into the finals
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By late 2021 she trained at the Infinity academy near Paris with coaches David Pierre-Louis and François Laurent, taught her own academy Panda Supa Crew, and had spent much of the pandemic training in Brazil with Alliance SP friends.
Where in the source: Q: training going; Panda Supa Crew
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She says she teaches both BJJ and judo, calls jiu-jitsu her life, and names the game of Bernardo Faria as the main influence on her own.
Where in the source: Q: who influenced you; Bernardo Faria
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She goes by the nickname Panda.
Where in the source: Q: introduce yourself; nickname Panda
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FloGrappling, preview of European black belts at the 2023 IBJJF World Championships, 31 May 2023(opens in a new tab)
FloGrappling previewed her as a 2023 Worlds super-heavyweight contender, noting her 2022 Worlds bronze and a European silver earlier in 2023.
Where in the source: Article: winning bronze at 2022 Worlds
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Lineage
No teaching connections are shown on this page.
Open lineage