Épée, Individual, Men

36 épée fencers from 18 countries qualified for the individual event at Tokyo. The reigning Olympic champion was Park Sang-Yeong of South Korea and the reigning World Champion was Gergely Siklósi of Hungary. They fenced each other in the quarter-finals, with Siklósi becoming the winner by a very close 15-12 win. Siklósi then finally lost the final 15-10 against Romain Cannone from France. The bronze medal went to Ukraine’s Ihor Reizlin.

Romain Cannone was a surprise gold medallist. His French parents worked in the United States and Cannone grew up outside of New York City, which is where he began fencing. After attending Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, he moved back to France because he wanted to train fencing full time. He was named to France’s 2020 Olympic team as the reserve athlete, meaning that he would compete in only the team event. Shortly before the team left for Tokyo, however, one of the French fencers had a positive drug test and Cannone was named to replace him in the individual event.