The season-opening event at the AccorHotels Arena in the French capital will be the first Grand Slam, part of the IJF World Tour, to be held under the updated set of rules.

Kelmendi shot to fame when she clinched the women's under-52 kilograms crown at Rio 2016 - her country's first-ever gold medal on their Olympic debut - and she arrives in Paris as the number one seed in her category.

Brazil's Rafaela Silva, whose Rio 2016 triumph in the under-57kg marked one of the highlights of the Games, is also due to make a return to the tatami.

The event in Paris, a candidate city for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, has attracted a high-quality field, which also includes Rio 2016 Olympic champion Tina Trstenjak of Slovenia.

The under-63kg gold medallist could face a rematch of the Olympic final with Clarisse Agbegnenou, who will have the support of the home crowd should they meet at the event.

Agbegnenou's compatriot Emilie Andeol, a surprise winner of the over-78kg title in Rio, is among others to have entered.

Azerbaijan's Rustam Orujov, who claimed silver in the men's under-73kg event at Rio 2016, is one of the leading entries across the men's categories.

Orujov will be hoping to mark his third Paris Grand Slam appearance by finishing on top of the podium in the French capital for the first time.

His team-mate Elmar Gasimov, the current world number one, also won a silver medal at last year's Olympics and will be the one to beat in the men's under-100kg competition.

The Paris Grand Slam has been described as a "new beginning for judo" and is the first step on the road to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The adapted laws for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic cycle were revealed in December and presented at an IJF refereeing and coaching seminar held earlier this month in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku.

Among the revised regulations is the scrapping of the yuko evaluation of technique points, leaving only ippon and waza-ari.

As part of the rule changes, the value of waza-ari includes that given for yuko in the past, while the waza-ari does not add up and two waza-ari is no longer the equivalent of ippon.

For immobilisations, waza-ari has been shortened to 10 seconds from 15 and ippon remains as 20.

Furthermore, there are now three shido penalties, instead of the previous four.

Leg grabbing or grabbing the trousers is first penalised by shido and secondly by a hansoku-make disqualification.

The IJF said in December its goal is "to promote the rules of judo and make them easier to understand, as well as to simplify them", adding "the purpose of these rules is to give priority to the attack and to the realisation of ippon".

"We are introducing our new rules for the first time at an IJF event in Paris and we hope they will benefit all areas of our sport including media coverage, viewing figures and attendances at live events," IJF President Marius Vizer said at today's official draw. 

"The IJF continues to be committed to our many ongoing projects such as Judo for Children, self-defence, Army and Police, and these will all be advanced over the coming years.

"I wish you all a lot of success in Paris and a nice stay in France."

Action begins tomorrow and concludes on Sunday (February 12).