Maxime Pianfetti, the saber in the clear

PORTRAIT – Surprising vice-world champion a year ago, the Frenchman learns, at 24, to manage his new status one year from the Paris Games.

Play it like Romain Cannone. Even if he does not practice the same weapon as the Olympic champion of Tokyo in the sword, the swordsman Maxime Pianfetti does not have less a point in common with the resident of Stella Saint-Maur: one like the other hatched at the highest level in a way as surprising as thunderous. Except that Cannone managed to adorn himself with gold while Pianfetti, he had to settle for silver at the end of the last final of the World Championships disputed a year ago in Cairo. A painful defeat against the Hungarian legend Aaron Szilagyi, winner of a small touch (15-14). What feed an eternal frustration?

«The same evening and during the two or three days that followed, yes, the frustration prevailed over everything else“, remembers the 24-year-old Tarbais on the side of Insep. “But little by little, I put aside this thought of telling myself that I had come to nothing next to the title to concentrate on the happiness of being on this podium.All the more so after several struggling seasons. Coming to fencing and saber at a very young age, from the age of 5, Maxime Pianfetti was quick to distinguish himself brilliantly in the youth categories. Until becoming European junior champion in 2018, the year he joined Insep. But the transition from Tarbes to Insep is not without concern. “At first it had been very difficult. I asked myself a lot of questions, I also questioned myself a lot. I wondered what kind of athlete I wanted to become. Between 2018 and 2021, I had very hard and cold years in terms of results. And then there was the arrival of a new coaching duo after Tokyo with Vincent Anstett and Pierre Mione. They managed to give me confidence and make me raise my level in competition.»

Awareness in 2022

For the Frenchman, the turning point is in 2022. “My first click of the year was not in competition“, he analyzes. “It was an ankle injury in January that prevented me from taking part in two World Cup stages, before only resuming fencing at the end of March. I then took time for myself, to see friends and that gave me a more general vision of my life, of me as an athlete. I was able to recharge my batteries and I felt as soon as I resumed that I was performing. Even only after a few days of training. This feeling of being able to win without being in top form made me believe in it.» Followed a World Cup stage in Padua where he dominated the German Matyas Szabo (15-11) after a «reference game“, in his own words. Behind, even if he lost in the quarter-finals against the South Korean Bongil Gu (11-15), Pianfetti had just unblocked mentally. Two months later, he won silver at the World Championships in Cairo.

When I lose in the 1st round, I try to understand and use it.

Maxime Pianfetti

An upward trajectory that he nevertheless had to take the time to digest. “I’m learning to handle the pressure. My status has changed since my medal last year. From now on, I am part of the Top 4 in the world, which means that I am highly anticipated. Now, to be honest, I’m still looking for myself because it’s not easy to get so quickly and so brutally to the top of the rankings. I continue to learn, I manage this with my trainer. When I lose in the 1st round, I try to understand and use it. The level, I am convinced that I have it but everything must be put in place.” Entry defeats, the Tarbais have experienced several this season in Tunis, Warsaw or Padua. But he also signed two podiums in the World Cup, his first, in Budapest and Madrid. Two third places which allow him to approach these Worlds in Milan in good conditions.

The importance of the mind

«Before the Worlds in Cairo a year ago, I believed in myself“, he confides. “Certainly, I did not expect to go to the final like that but I was ready for it. My goal before was just to be ready and to give the maximum of what I could produce on the big day. That’s what I managed to do, and that’s what I want to continue doing.Before adding, on the importance of the psychological aspect:At the very top level, the level of play and abilities are almost the same for everyone and what makes the difference in terms of performance is the mind. I discussed it with Darryl Homer (an American vice-world champion in 2015 in saber) when I was in trouble at the start of the year, after having failed three times in the 1st round. To progress on this, I see a mental trainer and I find that we work that we do together is crucial. Technique is very important, but you also need the courage, determination and confidence to sublimate it and win matches..»

A mind at the top, but also an atypical fencing, capable of unhorsing his opponents even if his recent performances have brought him to light, with all that this underlies of a game scrutinized with meticulousness. “It is the art of this sport to succeed in adapting while still imposing your game.“, he lets go, a smile on his lips. “My game is like that in any case, I want to impose myself. I try to consider that my opponents don’t know me but it’s true that there were very specific actions that I did a lot a year ago during the Worlds and which worked well. But since then, my game has been analyzed and I force myself to do it much less because I’m expected to do so.»

Healthy emulation with Eliott Bibi

Moreover, he himself recognizes it with modesty: in training, facing his French partners who know him by heart, Maxime Pianfetti confesses to being often “massacre“. On these Worlds, the Tarbais will try to do better than the Pau Elliott Bibi (23), with whom he grew up, in a way. “We started fencing at the same age, at 5 years old. At first, we were more enemies than anything else. We ran into each other all the time, suddenly it was me who won, suddenly it was him. The first title, it was he who won it as the youngest by becoming French champion, which really pissed me off because I didn’t really appreciate him at the time. And afterwards, among the executives, we started doing European Cups together. Little by little, we got to know each other. We have seen that the nonsense of one made the other laugh and vice versa. So we logically ended up putting this rivalry aside to befriend. Now we share a lot of moments together and we lift each other up. It would be magical to stand on a podium together one day.In Paris during the summer of 2024 for example?