Théo Masse and Paul Fortin, two “sports elite” stu­dents at the top of their game.

En route to the Solitaire du Figaro 2027

Théo Masse, 21, is a mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing stu­dent at UTC, spe­cial­is­ing in mate­ri­als and tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tions. He also has a pas­sion for sail­ing, with eight French cham­pi­onship titles and five World Cup podi­um fin­ish­es already under his belt.

Théo Masse was admit­ted to UTC after gain­ing a sci­en­tif­ic bac­calau­réate (maths-physics) and a DUT in mate­ri­als sci­ence and engi­neer­ing. Cur­rent­ly on place­ment with CDK Tech­nolo­gies in Brit­tany, a com­pa­ny spe­cial­is­ing in the con­struc­tion of rac­ing yachts tak­ing part in the Vendée Globe, the 21-year-old stu­den­t’s career plan is to work in the field of ocean rac­ing such as the Vendée Globe, com­bin­ing his engi­neer­ing skills with his pas­sion for sail­ing. ‘I’m prepar­ing to become an engi­neer spe­cialised in struc­tur­al cal­cu­la­tions, to link my knowl­edge with boat per­for­mance. At the same time, from a sport­ing point of view, my aim is to take part in the sin­gle-hand­ed Soli­taire du Figaro race in 2027, hop­ing to make a liv­ing from sail­ing and my pas­sion,’ says the sports­man whose love of sail­ing began at the age of 8, thanks to school sail­ing. ‘I start­ed com­pet­ing in Logu­ivy-de-la-Mer in north­ern Brit­tany, with the Logu­ivy Can­ot Club (LCC). From my very first years in the Opti­mist, a tiny sin­gle-hand­ed boat, I dis­cov­ered the excite­ment of regat­tas and the spir­it of cama­raderie that made me want to excel in this sport.

An already impressive list of achievements

Théo Masse has won eight French cham­pi­onships in var­i­ous dis­ci­plines since he start­ed out in Opti­mist, as well as win­ning the Tour de France à la Voile in 2023, and two vic­to­ries and five podi­um fin­ish­es in the Match Rac­ing World Cup. In 2025, the future engi­neer plans to con­cen­trate on his tran­si­tion to the Figaro class along­side his TN09 (six-month assis­tant engi­neer place­ment), tak­ing part in train­ing races and prepara­to­ry regat­tas. ‘After my TN09 in the A25, I’ll be aim­ing for the match-rac­ing world cham­pi­onships, a dis­ci­pline I’ve been prac­tis­ing for three years now,’ adds the man whose life is a per­fect bal­ance between his stud­ies at UTC and his inten­sive sail­ing. ‘I organ­ise my weeks between class­es at UTC, every oth­er week, alter­nat­ing cours­es, school projects and phys­i­cal prepa­ra­tion. I main­ly train in the Mediter­ranean or on waters close to the com­pe­ti­tion venues. My organ­i­sa­tion is based on good plan­ning to max­imise my work­ing time and my sport­ing performance.

Advanced studies, sports elite and values

Théo Masse appre­ci­ates more than any­thing the com­bi­na­tion of strat­e­gy, tech­nique and sur­pass­ing one­self. He loves the pre­ci­sion need­ed to opti­mise each set­ting, as well as the adapt­abil­i­ty required to cope with the nat­ur­al ele­ments. ‘This sport con­veys val­ues that are close to my heart: help­ing oth­ers, humil­i­ty in the face of the ocean and respect for the envi­ron­ment. UTC also offers him the oppor­tu­ni­ty to com­bine a demand­ing course with high-lev­el sports. ‘The sup­port giv­en to stu­dent ath­letes allows me to pur­sue my objec­tives with­out com­pro­mis­ing my aca­d­e­m­ic progress. Being open to inno­va­tion and tech­nol­o­gy also moti­vates me, as it ties in with my inter­est in design and per­for­mance, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the naval sector.

Los Angeles at the point of the sword

Paul Fortin is in the first semes­ter of his mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing degree at UTC. He has been fenc­ing since the age of 10 and has set his sights on tak­ing part in the Los Ange­les Olympic Games in 2028.

Paul Fortin has not yet cho­sen his major, but he is par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ed in mate­ri­als and sim­u­la­tion. His career plan is to work in sports equip­ment design. This would enable him to com­bine his love of sport with his skills in help­ing sports­peo­ple to improve their per­for­mance. ‘I start­ed fenc­ing when I was 10, my broth­er was already doing this and, as I want­ed to do every­thing like him, so I joined him. Since then, he’s stopped and I’ve car­ried on,’ laughs the 22-year-old fencer, who took part in the Qatar Grand Prix Épée in Doha last Jan­u­ary. He rep­re­sent­ed France at the event, but unfor­tu­nate­ly did­n’t fin­ish on the podi­um. His goal is to take part in the Euro­pean U23 Cham­pi­onships in April, as well as the World Uni­ver­si­ty Cham­pi­onships in Ger­many in July 2025. ‘For the moment, my best per­for­mances are 3rd place in the Junior World Cham­pi­onships with the French team, plus selec­tion for the Euro­pean and World Cham­pi­onships in the youth cat­e­go­ry. Recent­ly, I joined the French senior nation­al top 12 who will be going on to inter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions’, sums up Paul Fortin, who had applied for a one-year gap year at UTC, which was renewed for a fur­ther year.

An intense pace with the LA 2028 Olympics in his sights

This gap year enabled him to go to an Amer­i­can uni­ver­si­ty where he obtained his bach­e­lor’s degree in eco­nom­ics. ‘It also allowed me to train every day and improve my sport. I also did very well there, mak­ing it into the top eight epeeists in the Unit­ed States. The Olympics are also in the back of her mind, but there’s still a long way to go and many chal­lenges still lie ahead. ‘In Paris, I do my phys­i­cal prepa­ra­tion and have indi­vid­ual lessons with my pri­vate coach. I stay in Paris in the evening to do an ‘assault’ ses­sion. I then take the last train back to Com­piègne. I do this about three times a week. The rest of the week, I do a bit of phys­i­cal prepa­ra­tion and some basic fenc­ing moves in the spe­cial room or salle d’armes, in Com­piègne’, sums up Paul Fortin, who finds in his dis­ci­pline the val­ues of respect and cohe­sion that can be devel­oped just as much with his team-mates as with his fel­low stu­dents at the UTC.

KD