Fencer Enzo Lefort was announced Monday as the latest French athlete to be signed by Louis Vuitton and sponsored by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The French house praised the athlete for “his sense of commitment, excellence and determination”, while the group highlighted his “creativity, excellence and perseverance” in statements revealing the sponsorship and Lefort’s new role.
The 32-year-old foil fencer, born in French Guiana, is a three-time Olympian, four-time European team champion and two-time individual world champion. In July he won a bronze medal at the 2023 World Championships in Milan.
Away from the fencing field, Lefort dabbled in film photography in 2017 and published “Behind the Mask,” a photo book in which he celebrated the diversity of the French national fencing team. His second monograph, “Olympic Backstage,” was recently released, providing a behind-the-scenes look at the lives of athletes during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
His sporting career is told in a manga entitled Enzo, which he co-authored with Paris-born illustrator Tony Lourenço.
Lefort also launched a French-language podcast in February called “Le Rebond” (or the recovery in English), in which he talks to other athletes, including veteran track and field world champion Ladji Doucouré and Paralympic cyclist Marie Patouillet, about how to Turns setbacks into new motivation.
Lefort joins swimmer Leon Marchand among Vuitton’s ambassadors in the world of sports, which also includes tennis players Carlos Alcaraz and Naomi Osaka; Among others, the skier Eileen Gu and the soccer player Sam Li Sirong.
He is the third in LVMH’s all-star cohort of sponsored athletes, which already includes Dior-signed gymnast Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos and Marchand. Everyone benefits from financial support and privileged introductions to the group’s homes.
In addition to representing Louis Vuitton in the lead-up to the Games, Lefort will support the 2023-24 edition of the LVMH Master GaMEs, an annual competition for trainees at the LVMH Institut des Métiers d’Excellence that is holding events in five countries for the first time.
He will challenge trainees to reinterpret the rules of fencing in their craft. The best examples will be presented in the LVMH pavilion during Paris 2024.
The French group has committed to becoming a premium partner of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris in July, where medals will be designed by jeweler Chaumet. Several other houses will also take part, including Vuitton, Dior, Berluti, Sephora and the wine and spirits division of Moët Hennessy.