“Ah, you scared me at the end!” » Romain Cannone evacuates, in a sentence released with a smile, all the stress accumulated by the suspense experienced from the stands. This time, he, Olympic champion in Tokyo in 2021 and gold at the Worlds the following year but ejected from these European Championships in the round of 16, is not the Frenchman in the final on the track. It’s “Lulu”, a little nickname for the hero of the day, the only Frenchman capable of achieving individual gold in Basel this week. Two identical syllables to designate the new European gold medalist, Luidgi Midelton.
Unknown to the battalion? It’s normal. The Guadeloupean is competing in the first major competition of his career in Switzerland at the age of 25. The tall and thin fencer was indeed junior world champion in 2018, but took time to progress to the big leagues. “We fought, we pulled our hair out so that he understood the logic of what we wanted to convey to him,” says Gauthier Grumier, manager of the weapon since March who has worked with him at Insep since three years. It took a long time. »
This season, the graduate from Beauvais (Oise) experienced his first World Cup victory among seniors in Vancouver, Canada. A success which weighed heavily in the federal choice to put him among the three starting shooters for the Paris Olympic Games alongside Romain Cannone and Yannick Borel. The fresh European champion found himself in the shoes of the indirect victim of the conflict between the two French headliners and the ex-manager Hugues Obry, who resigned in February and whose possibility of a return as that deputy in Basel and the Olympics was refused by the two swordsmen.
“I consider myself a hungry athlete”
“It pissed me off a little to no longer be able to train with him,” he explained to Insep before leaving to compete in the European Championships. In the mixed zone Thursday evening, “Lulu” dismissed the question about Obry’s absence with a little embarrassed smile, preferring to detail his relaxation in the final against the Hungarian Gergely Siklosi, world number 2, gold medalist at the 2019 World Championships. and reigning Olympic vice-champion. Or his Olympic ambitions, without trying to hide in the least.
“My goal is to go for gold individually and in teams,” states the 23rd in the world without hesitation. I don’t know if I’m being called a pretender or not, but I’m determined. I consider myself an athlete who is hungry and wants to go for titles and medals. »
“The last guy who was over thirty and won the Olympics was Pavel Kolobkov in 2000 and he was 31. The profile of the guy who can win the Olympics, he is under 30 years old and he is under the radar, estimates Gauthier Grumier. He has the profile, he will have to seize his chance. He will perhaps be more expected now, he will have to deal with it. »
But for now, “Lulu” is enjoying her first gold medal in a major competition. When he came down from the podium, he was lifted into the air by several athletes, led by sabreuse Manon Apithy-Brunet. The ceiling of the Halle Saint-Jacques has little to do with that of the Grand Palais, but perhaps he caught himself dreaming up there.
