French fencing is experiencing a period of turmoil in the months leading up to the Paris 2024 Olympics
The little fencing family is scattered in competition this weekend, between those looking for Lima, swordsmen returning to Barcelona, sabers venturing to Tbilisi. And from Peru to Georgia, all the conglomerates were warned by their management: their sport was about to enter an area of turmoil, with one of its leading figures, Yasora Thibus, suspended after an abnormal analysis result. Anti-doping. Not necessarily the morning news “Reflects on others”, they say among people around the blues. While blowing: “We didn’t need it right now. »
No need, that is certain, for French fencing, for nearly six months, has been going from crisis to crisis, so close to the Olympics at home that it will have all the arguments to advance triumphantly. But since September, after a barely decent world championship, without worry (6 medals including one gold), everything has gone wrong for the tricolor blade.
It was the upper echelon that experienced the first upheaval. The main weapon, the men’s AP, entered its psychodrama, a clash between its fencing master, Hugh Aubrey, and its three headliners, Romain Cannon, Olympic champion, Yannick Borrell, world 2018 champion and sixth-ranked Alexandre Bardenet. the world The French Fencing Federation (FFE) and the National Sports Agency (ANS) had to intervene to prevent an outburst and the departure of Aubry, who was recalled to the bed of the blues after dazzling China at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. The collective is now moving along as best it can, but the problems are not over: Aubrey is on sick leave again for an unspecified period.
Encouraging results in the World Cup though
If the women’s foil also had to manage an unexpected personnel change, it was the men’s saber that was torn apart, with the departure of Lionel Plumenel, replacing Yann Detien. The three rebels no longer wanted to train with the national coach, Alain Coicaud, and demanded the right to start working again with their former coach Vincent Anstat, who left the French team in the spring of 2023. Maxime Pianfetti, vice champion at the world in 2022 in Cairo, Sebastien Patrice, ranked tenth in the world and his brother Jean-Philippe finally got the authorization amid pressure and compromise.
The FFE itself lost its mind when it was confronted with these files: its president, Bruno Gares, resigned at the end of September, to everyone’s surprise. In a post from 2020, the former armorer of the French teams cited personal reasons, saying he was “tired” of his mission. Investigation of 20 minutesPublished at the end of January, however, his departure cast a different hue, revealing suspicions of embezzlement that weighed on Gares, and whose ripples rocked the organization.
Gares, with his eloquence, was one of those who did not hesitate to declare fencing’s Olympic ambitions. Under the glass roof of the Grand Palace, he envisioned bringing home about ten medals, roughly one per event. The year 2022 and its eight world charms, a record like Sara Balzer or Marie-Florence Kendasamy’s world No. 1 position at the end of 2023, and the group’s encouraging results at World Cup events, lend credence to these projections. But to achieve them, the tricolor fence does not make the task easy.
