Enzo Lefort during the final of the world champions in foil, July 20, 2019. -

Tibor Illyes / AP / SIPA

  • Stopped for nearly a year because of the coronavirus pandemic, international fencing competitions resume in March. 

  • After the swordsmen in Budapest then the swordsmen in Kazan, it is the foilists' turn to take to the track at the end of the week, in Doha. 

  • Enzo Lefort, reigning world champion in the discipline, will play his place individually for the Tokyo Olympics. 

Finally.

After a year without competition, the fencers are back on the international slopes in March.

The swordsmen had the honor of shooting the first, last week in Budapest, before the swordsmen, who have been in since Friday in Kazan.

For foil, see you at the end of the week in Doha.

Enzo Lefort will, of course.

The 2019 world champion, like all his teammates of the France team, plays an individual place at the Tokyo Olympics over this weekend.

There are three to take, while the Blues are already qualified by team.

Joined before boarding for Qatar on Monday, Lefort told

20 Minutes

his haste to put the mask back on and how he took advantage - anyway - in recent uncertain months.

Your sport has been at a standstill for a year.

What did these last twelve look like to you?

After the first confinement, the recovery was very gradual.

It evolved according to the health situation, as for everyone.

We resumed training in May, initially outdoors, and only then were we allowed to enter Insep, where we were finally able to get back to fencing.

We knew at that time that there would be no competition before October.

Initially the resumption was scheduled for the end of that month, then it was at the end of December, then January… And there, we know since mid-January that we have this competition in Doha.

How did you experience all these postponements?

It should not be easy to stay mobilized ...

We quickly understood, however, that uncertainty was going to become the norm and that we were going to lack visibility.

Finally, there are two categories of athletes.

There are a few of us who know that we are going to do the Games, that gives us perspective.

I told myself during all this period that I had to hang on, that I was preparing for the Olympics.

It was more complicated for the others, still unsure or who already knew they weren't going to Tokyo.

But casually, the Games in Paris are getting closer, they have this long-term goal to motivate themselves on a daily basis.

Enzo Lefort with the Minister of Sports Roxana Maracineanu during a visit to the CNSD, in September 2019. - Vincent Loison / SIPA

There are three places to take individually in Doha, how will it be?

We are a

short list

 of four [Julien Mertine, Erwann Le Péchoux, Maxime Pauty and himself], but if another athlete does a big performance this week [12 French people are in contention in total], the coaches will take that into account.

What are the criteria ?

The only certainty is that the first on points [according to a ranking taking into account the results since October 2019] will be selected.

For the moment, it's Julien Mertine, but mathematically nothing is done.

There are three of us, with Erwann and Maxime, to be able to catch up with him.

Then there is Wallerand Roger who is fifth in points.

He can't catch up with Julien, but if he does a big performance this weekend, that can play out.

The places will be allocated by a commission, according to a mixture of several criteria.

Me, for example, I am the reigning world champion, I have proven that I know how to win a major competition, I think that is an important fact.

But I have no choice but to wait, like the others, for the announcement of the selection.

Do you still tell yourself that you almost have your place, or is there real pressure on this Grand Prix in Doha?

In my head, I have my place to go and look.

My goal is to start from there with a big result to be first in points, so there is no doubt, I know I'm going.

You must be impatient, after a year without competing ...

Of course, we can not wait!

We've been working for months now, so we want to make it happen.

It's great to have this competition before the Games, it will serve as a benchmark, to see where we are in relation to ourselves, our fencing, and also in relation to foreigners.

This is really what we are missing at the moment, this

feedback

from the competition.

It always serves as a benchmark in our progress.

Competition is validation of work.

You are going to fight against each other to get to the Games.

How is the competition going within the team?

There is a big density in foil, but we are lucky to have a healthy group.

We get along really well, we are friends off the track.

Competition is accepted by everyone, and so will the decision of the coaches.

We all know that if we are not first in points, we expose ourselves.

It's very clear, and it's up to everyone to make the best possible results.

May the best win, and when we have lost, we encourage the other anyway.

If we are not first at the points, we can only blame ourselves, we will not hope that the other also crashes.

WORLD CHAMPION.

- Balazs Czagany / AP / SIPA

The Olympics risk taking place without spectators.

Do you think that will take away all their charm?

Honestly, no.

Already, in fencing, we are not used to rooms of 80,000 people in fusion

(laughs)

.

So that's not going to change anything.

We are just happy that there are Games.

This is the only time when our sport has a little visibility, we always look forward to them.

These are the highlights of our career, so that they happen is the most important.

After that, it remains a track, an opponent, a referee.

The Games are also a general atmosphere, going to see other athletes, etc.

Won't you miss it?

Yes, maybe, but these are parameters that we do not control.

Personally, I don't care, I am interested in the aspects on which I have a hold.

As long as there is my competition, it is the most important.

Because otherwise we get confused and lose energy for nothing.

What have you learned over the past twelve months about yourself or your relationship to sport?

It's not something that I really learned, but it reinforced my idea that you have to know how to let go, adapt to the situation that arises.

We've been doing just that in recent months.

Dealing with the vagaries was already our daily life as a high level athlete, but there it took on another dimension.

You took advantage of this period to bring out a photo book, tell us how this project was born ...

It is a book [entitled 

Behind the mask

] which highlights the diversity in the French fencing team.

I had this idea after the first confinement, resonating with the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

I didn't really like the way this movement was treated in France.

In the United States, society is based in part on communitarianism.

I have the impression that all of a sudden, we wanted to copy that in France, even though that's not the way we live here at all.

In France, we advocate living together, diversity, and I told myself that we were creating divisions in our society when it was meant to be a unifying movement.

I take the example of the black square on Instagram.

Either you posted it, but it never worked out, there wasn't the right hashtag or whatever, or you didn't post it because you were said to be racist.

It divided a lot of people.

Personally, I said to myself that I was playing a sport reserved in the imagination of the social elite, when this is not true.

I am West Indian, I am the world champion of this sport, in the French teams there are people from all social classes, all ethnicities, and I wanted to put that forward.

Where did the idea of ​​photographing your teammates come from?

I decided to photograph about twenty, without distinction, and I took a series of photos that were originally to be exhibited in a sports hall in Paris [La Mongolfière, in the 10th arrondissement].

It was supposed to be in November, but the club had to close.

We are waiting for it to reopen to do so.

In the meantime, I wanted to make these photos accessible so I made a book out of them, which I self-edited so that I wouldn't have to compromise with a publishing house.

I wanted to do my thing.

I did everything from A to Z, I made my model, I went to see printers, etc.

The book was released in December, for sale on my site.

Was that a way, too, to do something else, to clear your mind?

Completely, I discovered the publishing profession, I learned to use software like InDesign, etc.

It was very interesting.

And all of that was made possible by the period.

Without completely easing the foot either, last year we trained less intensely than if we were preparing for the Games.

So I had time and especially space in my head for this project to be born.

And my teammates were all very happy to participate.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Enzo Lefort (@enzo_lefort)

Has photography been a passion for a long time?

It's been three years now since I started.

I work with film [on film].

It's starting to take up more and more space in my life, and I plan to use it for my retraining.

I tell myself why not… I still have time to think about it, but suddenly I take advantage.

I practice, I take more and more pictures, I do some for fashion brands, restaurants, lots of things.

Do you think you will also get to know fencing a little better in this way?

More broadly, yes.

I think of the kid who wants to do fencing and who thinks it's an inaccessible sport.

I want him to know that not at all, that these are clichés, that this sport is open to everyone.

Moreover, I have set up a partnership with Paris 2024. When the exhibition takes place, schoolchildren from Ile-de-France will be able to come and see it.

I am happy with this project.

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