The french are amazing when it comes to Judo. Jean-Luc Rouge is the director of the French Judo Federation and I believe he is the head trainer of the Olympic Judo Team. Rouge is the Judo guy who kind of looks like Weird Al Yankavich and won the 1975 World Championship. So with his leadership the French have really been strong in Judo. There is solid program in place to support Judo in France (unlike the U.S., where it's every man for himself).
Their style is relatively predictable.
First, the over the shoulder grab is central to everything they do. Bouras dominated his weight class in the Olympics (including Koga), just by having an aggresive over the shoulder grab.
Also, they are extremely tactical and savy when it comes to the rules of judo.
And, there's a huge base of amazing judo players to train the newcomers: Jean-Luc Rouge himself, Brigitte Deydier (Olympic Silver, World Gold), Cecile Nowak (Olympic and World Gold), Marie-Claire Restoux (Olympic and World Gold), Daivd Douillet (2 Olympic Golds, 4 World Golds, best record in history of Judo), and a slew of others.
The Russians actually have recorded less International Judo wins than the French, believe it or not. Part of that may have been the many boycotts in the 1980's. Plus the "break up" of the USSR. Many former "Russians" moved to other countries (like Turkey), and now compete for other teams. All this skews the stats a bit. There is no doubt that the Russians and the Former Soviet Union countries, as a whole, are extremely powerful.
