From our special correspondent in Tokyo,
Give him the keys to the city and the Emperor’s room. Romain Cannone, caught by the pass at the last moment to get on the plane, is the first French Olympic champion of the fortnight. “Pano”, as the friends say, who have not let go all day despite their personal disappointments. Yannick Borel, not the least noisy, had seen everything before the half: “Considering how he shoots today, he is able to make us a Brice Guyart and bring back the title”.
Make a Brice Guyart? Come out of nowhere to gut the competition on the blessed day. A little believing on the edges, Romain had imagined his canonization the day before during a last prayer: “Throughout the day I was very grateful because I believe that I was listened to”. And not just a little: the world numbers 1, 2 and 3 in the dumpster. Pierre Guichaud, head of the French teams, remains silent: “I don’t even know if he was behind once in the score. He flew over the day ”.
“I took incomparable pleasure”
Come on, we counted a touch of delay in the middle of the final against the Hungarian. Erased before we have time to think about it. “I didn’t tell myself that nothing could happen to me, but it’s true that it was easy to do my fencing, to set the traps, to play with the other”, explains the young man of 24 years. , good chess player in civilian life. “I had an incomparable pleasure, I could not even sit still, because I was ready to repeat a game. It’s weird to say, I was ready, I was like “Who’s next?”. I was having a really good time, I couldn’t see the time going by ”. Not bad for a guy who did the numbers in training at the start of the season, before taking advantage
of the suspension of Daniel Jérent to integrate the individual table.
Americans can have glands: Cannone started fencing there at age 12, brought in his suitcases by traveling parents. First Brazil, then New York, to work in the macaroon. Three stores today between Brooklyn and Manhattan, and soon a new range of Olympic gold colored biscuits. Trained in Ukrainian school by Micha Mokretsov, the boy with the unusual size quickly shows his potential. But not enough to get the green card.
“The Americans didn’t want me. I said to myself “Ok, I’m going back to France, I’m going to prove to you that I’m worth something”. But what exactly? Ronan Gustin, room mate: “He was trained to do stroke fencing, had to do this one and not another. With us, he had to learn that things can be built ”.
Champagne fencing
Sunday, Gustin and the others spend their time reminding him: “Don’t go in the middle of the track, active, active, put some rhythm back”. Laugh at Cannone: “They know I’m going to make sausages [des coups sans queue ni tête] so they are there to call me to order ”. Gustin even sticks a temper to him during the warm-up before his semi-final, just to get back to earth, if necessary. “When he arrived, we immediately called him ‘Pano’, for Peter Pan, because Romain is a big kid. He was very naive, he followed all our jokes ”.
Since then, he has matured, in the group as in his fencing. Well-felt comment from Brice Guyart on the air: “I naturally came out cannonissime because it’s so nice to see fencing like that, this mixture between instinct, and vista, and at the same time a pattern. tactic that is decided before. He is able to touch the foot then the next one to go up, it’s quite confusing for an opponent. It’s really champagne fencing ”.
And there, believe me or not, it turns out that Romain Cannone is ambassador of a brand of champagne. The Gardet house, which hosted him alternately in 2017-2018 when the future Olympic champion returned to France to join the Creps de Reims. Christophe Grieux quickly turned on the TV when the aroma of the feat reached him.
“We had put it in the commercial export section, for its connections to the United States.” Then ? “A serious, hardworking boy, with very well-worked, very correct files”. And above all very calm. “When I see him on TV, there is a duplication of personality, jokes the company director. With us, it had nothing of the exuberance one would expect from a salesperson, while on the track, it explodes ”.
A transcended team?
A bestial cry, even, before Borel and company came to carry it in triumph on the track of the Makuhari Messe Hall from Tokyo. To sprinkle it with champagne a little later in the village, it is also playable. La Maison Gardet provides a small quality wine merchant in Tokyo, Liquor Mountain for intimate friends. Cannone laughs: “You did your homework right. Maybe I’ll go take one or two ”. Treat yourself Romain, there is time to cool off before the team competition.