Fencer Enzo Lefort was revealed Monday as the latest French athlete to be signed by Louis Vuitton and be sponsored by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The French house lauded the athlete for “his sense of effort, excellence and determination,” while the group highlighted his “creativity, excellence and perseverance,” in statements unveiling the sponsorship and Lefort’s new role.
Born in French Guiana, the 32-year-old foil fencer is a three-time Olympian, four-time team European and two-time individual world champion. In July, he scored a bronze medal at the 2023 World Championship in Milan.
Beyond the fencing strip, Lefort picked up film photography in 2017 and published “Behind the Mask,” a photography book in which he paid homage to the diversity of the French national fencing team. His second monograph, titled “Olympic Backstage,” in which he gave a behind-the-scenes view of life for the athletes during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was recently released.
His athletic career is told in a manga titled “Enzo,” which he coauthored with Paris-born illustrator Tony Lourenço.
Lefort also launched in February a French language podcast titled “Le Rebond,” (or the rebound, in English), where he talks with fellow athletes, including veteran track and field champion Ladji Doucouré and Paralympian cyclist Marie Patouillet, about turning setbacks into fresh motivation.
Lefort joins swimmer Leon Marchand among Vuitton’s ambassadors in the world of sport, which also includes tennis players Carlos Alcaraz and Naomi Osaka; skier Eileen Gu, and soccer player Sam Li Sirong, among others.
He is the third in LVMH’s all-star cohort of sponsored athletes that already includes gymnast Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos, who was tapped by Dior, and Marchand. All will benefit from financial support and privileged introductions to the group’s houses.
In addition to representing Louis Vuitton in the run-up to the Games, Lefort will support the 2023-24 edition of the LVMH Master GaMEs, an annual competition for apprentices at the LVMH Institut des Métiers d’Excellence that will hold events in five countries for the first time.
He will challenge apprentices to reinterpret the codes of fencing through their crafts. The finest examples will be showcased in the LVMH Pavilion during Paris 2024.
The French group signed on to become a premium partner of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in July, which will have medals designed by jeweler Chaumet. Several other houses will also take part, including Vuitton, Dior, Berluti, Sephora and the Moët Hennessy wines and spirits division.