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Lead Foil Coach & Olympic Fencer

Étienne was one of three young boys who enrolled in the very first session of the Gadbois Fencing Club. He never really left. A multiple Canadian champion, he won several medals at the Pan American Championships, both individually and as part of a team.

He was recruited by Giulio Tomassini — the best fencing coach in the world according to the newspaper L'Équipe — and furthered his training in Italy under the tutelage of the world's top champions.

In 2012 he qualified for the London Olympics as the third-best fencer in the Americas, ultimately finishing 21st. He retired from competition in 2016 after tying with Brazil for a second Olympic appearance, this time as part of a team. Today he coaches on the same floor where he took his first lesson.

Étienne coaches foil. His own preparation ran through the Italian school — recruited by Tomassini, training alongside world champions — and that background is what he brings back to the piste at Gadbois.

Because he started here as a beginner himself, he takes the first-season group as seriously as the competitive one. Distance, timing and blade control come before speed, and nobody is pushed onto a competition strip before the fundamentals hold up under pressure.