Former Hudson Valley Athlete Wins Gold In Tokyo

CROSS RIVER, NY — John Jay High School graduate Romain Cannone won Olympic gold, but not for the U.S.

Cannone won gold in the individual men's epee fencing competition on Sunday. The fencer with strong Hudson Valley ties earned France's first gold medal of the Tokyo Olympic games.

Cannone graduated from the Katonah-Lewisboro district school in 2015. He was born in France, but spent his early years in Brazil and then moved to the USA at age 12. The number 47-ranked fencer trained at the New York Fencing Academy while attending classes at JJHS.

Cannone qualified for the French team as an alternate, but was selected to compete after a teammate failed a drug test. The youngest member of the French team defeated Russian Sergey Bida in the quarter-finals and Ukrainian Ihor Reizlin in the semi-finals. The 24-year-old went on to win the gold medal, beating the top-ranked, world champion Gergely Siklós of Hungry.