Romain Cannone (born 12 April 1997) is a French right-handed

épée The (, ; ), also rendered as epee in English, is the largest and heaviest of the three weapons used in the sport of fencing. The modern derives from the 19th-century , a weapon which itself derives from the French small sword. This contains a ...

fencer, 2022 team world champion, 2022 individual world champion, and 2021 individual

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

champion. After winning gold in individual men's épée at the

2020 Tokyo Olympic Games The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

and the

2022 World Fencing Championships The 2022 World Fencing Championships were held from 15 to 23 July 2022 in Cairo, Egypt. Schedule Twelve events were held. ''All times are local (UTC+2).'' Medal summary Medal table Men Women References External linksOfficial website ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, Cannone became the first person to win back-to-back world titles in individual men's épée since

Pavel Kolobkov Pavel Anatolyevich Kolobkov (; born 22 September 1969) is a Russian (and formerly Soviet) retired épée fencer. He won one gold, two silver and three bronze medals at five Olympic Games from 1988 to 2004. Kolobkov served as Russia's represent ...

's world titles in 1993 and 1994. He was named Sportsperson of the Year for 2020 in

Colmar, France Colmar (; ; or ) is a city and Communes of France, commune in the Haut-Rhin Departments of France, department and Alsace Regions of France, region of north-eastern France. The third-largest commune in Alsace (after Strasbourg and Mulhouse), i ...

Career

Canonne was born in France, but moved to Brazil with his family while in kindergarten. He moved with his family to New York City's

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Historically, it w ...

while still young, and began fencing there at the age of 12, subsequently training under Michael Mokretsov at the age of 13 at the New York Fencing Academy in Coney Island. In 2019, Cannone ranked 30th in the Individual Men's épée World Championships in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. Prior to his

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, his highest ranking was 7th place at the Vancouver World Cup on 8 February 2019. As of 2019, when Cannone qualified for the Olympics, he was a student at

Skema Business School SKEMA Business School ("School of Knowledge Economy and Management") is a leading French business school ("Grande Ecole") with campuses across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa. It was established in 2009 through the merger of Ecole Supér ...

2020 Olympics

Cannone, originally only scheduled as a replacement athlete, was the youngest member of the 2020 French team. However, on 18 June 2021, when team member

Daniel Jérent Daniel Jérent (born 4 June 1991) is a French Épée fencer, team world champion in 2014. He was banned from the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo due to a positive urine test for a banned product, after he had otherwise qualified to fence in the individual ...

was removed from the team for a failed drug test, Cannone was selected to take his place. On 25 July 2021, he defeated the Russian Sergey Bida in the quarter-finals (15–12) and the Ukrainian Ihor Reizlin (15–10) in the semi-finals, and went on to win the gold medal (15–10) against the previous world champion

Gergely Siklósi Gergely Siklósi (born 4 September 1997) is a Hungarian right-handed épée fencer, 2019 individual world champion, and 2021 individual Olympic silver medalist. Medal record Olympic Games World Championship European Championship ...

. Cannone's win has been described as "surprising" being his first international medal in individual competition. He became the first French Olympic champion in individual fencing since

Brice Guyart Brice Guyart (born 15 March 1981 in Suresnes) is a foil fencer from France. He won a gold medal in the team foil event at the 2000 Summer Olympics and a gold in the individual foil at the 2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), o ...

won the gold medal in foil in 2004.

Medal record

Olympic Games

World Championship

European Championship

World Cup

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cannone, Romain Living people 1997 births French male épée fencers Olympic fencers for France Olympic gold medalists for France Olympic medalists in fencing Fencers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Mediterranean Games silver medalists for France Mediterranean Games medalists in fencing Fencers at the 2018 Mediterranean Games 21st-century French sportsmen World Fencing Championships medalists Sportspeople from Boulogne-Billancourt Fencers from Hauts-de-Seine Knights of the Legion of Honour European Games competitors for France Fencers at the 2023 European Games Fencers at the 2024 Summer Olympics