Romain Cannone brought France’s first gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in fencing. Beyond his sporting career, he is also an MSc student at the SKEMA business school. Discover his journey.
If you weren’t aware, know that the Tokyo Olympic Games, postponed for a year due to the pandemic, are currently taking place in the Japanese capital. If France has only collected a few medals so far, the first gold medal goes to Romain Cannone, fencing champion, in the men’s individual epee event.
Far from being content with his career as a high-level sportsman, Romain Cannone also went through higher education. He notably trained in business schools in France and abroad.
The history and sporting career of Romain Cannone, Olympic fencing champion
Romain Cannone was born in the Paris region in 1997. Very early on, he went abroad with his family. He spent part of his childhood in Brazil, before moving with his parents to New York. Indeed, they wanted to try an adventure: opening a macaron shop in this world city.
It was in the heart of this megalopolis that he discovered fencing and became passionate about this sport. He will also join the New York Fencing Academy. He then continued his sporting career in France, a few years after meeting the man who would become his mentor: Misha Mokretsov.
The academic career of Romain Cannone
Alongside his sporting career, Romain Cannone first trained at Sacred Heart University, an American university based in Fairfield, Connecticut. Between 2015 and 2016, he followed a BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) in business, management, marketing and support services.
After his American adventure, he returned to France for his sport and continued his studies at NEOMA, still in BBA, between 2017 and 2018. With his BBA in hand, he will continue his academic career at another business school: SKEMA. Between 2019 and 2021, he is completing an MSc in auditing. It follows the course dedicated to high-level athletes.
Romain Cannone: a professional career marked by finance and sales
The young fencing champion lived his student experience to the fullest, which was inevitably marked by compulsory professional experience. In 2018, he completed his first six-month internship within Champagne Gardet, in the sales department. He will then do a second six-month internship in the same company, in the exports department. He indicates on his Linkedin profile that his mission was, among other things, to look for new distributors in the United States and Canada and to organize the ProWein 2018 trade fair in Düsseldorf.
In 2020, Romain Cannone joined Sport Heroes for a three-month internship. He worked in finance and accounting there. Sport Heroes is a startup specializing in creating communities around sport, a subject that echoes Romain Cannone’s sporting career.
