We tend to imagine that an Olympic champion fell into their sport before they could even walk. That it was all written in advance. With Jordan Sepho, nothing went to plan.

Rugby came late. Very late. At 17, the player, whose roots on his mother’s side are in Réunion (he was born in Pontoise), was dreaming neither of the Stade de France nor of a gold medal. He was playing basketball, having previously done football and then wrestling. An opportunity even came up to move to the United States. The kind of offer that turns a life upside down. And yet, when the moment came to pack his bags in Réunion, where he grew up, he pulled back.

“The closer the departure got, the more scared I was. I was going far from my family, from my friends. I knew nothing over there. Everything was uncertain. So I stopped.” A decision that today looks like a providential detour.

From basketball to sevens: “moving on”

Some school friends then suggested he try rugby at Étang-Salé. He agreed without any real ambition, simply because he likes discovering new sports. “At the start, I did it for my mates. I like trying new things.“

He enjoyed fifteen-a-side. Then came sevens. That was the moment it clicked. “That is when I really loved it. There was much more space, you had to do everything, you could genuinely dig into your reserves. It suited my profile better. But sevens is very cruel. You win, but you also lose a lot. In a tournament you can lose a match and still finish as champion. You have to learn to move on very quickly.“

What had only been an experiment quickly turned into an obsession. Because in a handful of seasons, Jordan Sepho climbed every step without ever skipping one. A Réunion representative side. A French university championship. A few tries that turned heads. The France university team, then the development squad. Finally, in January 2020, the France team. The real one. The senior side.

An unusual road to France 7

A meteoric rise for a man who had only discovered rugby a few years earlier. “I wanted to become professional in a sport. I just did not know which one.“

That “unusual road” perhaps explains how he approaches the top level. Without fuss. Without ego. In a changing room, Jordan Sepho is not the most talkative, but he does a lot to “settle things down“. “I am the one who reminds the others to manage their emotions, he says, very shyly. Whether we win or lose, you have to stay calm.“

Jordan Sepho in the France 7 shirt at the HSBC SVNS in Bordeaux 2026
Jordan Sepho of France during the HSBC SVNS Sevens World Championship Bordeaux 2026 – Day Three on June 7, 2026 in Bordeaux, France. (Photo by Loic Cousin/Icon Sport) – Photo by Icon Sport

It is no accident, either, that he has never imagined himself anywhere else. Where some see sevens as a springboard to the fifteen-a-side game, Jordan Sepho found his sport in it. “In fifteens, I never finished a match the way I did in sevens. In sevens you are involved the whole time. You attack, you defend, you run everywhere. That is what I like.” A constant intensity that suits his profile as much as his temperament.

That quiet strength has become one of his hallmarks.

Paris 2024, a daily obsession

When the France team was preparing for the Paris Games, the group talked about one thing and one thing only. “For four years, all we talked about was the gold medal.“

“The Olympic title was not born of one magical summer, but of a daily obsession,” he explains. The wins in Los Angeles and then Madrid, a few weeks before the Games, reinforced that private certainty that something was taking shape.

And the quarter-final against Argentina remains, in his view, the real turning point. “Once we beat them, we felt nothing could stop us.“

The Olympic title was not born of one magical summer, but of a daily obsession.

Jordan Sepho

A few days later, the Stade de France erupted. France became Olympic champions in front of nearly 80,000 spectators. Several million more on television. “That was the fulfilment. We had been talking about it for four years. Everyone was very emotional.” His most vivid memory.

Just as memorable: the Olympic fortnight was also marked by the arrival of Antoine Dupont, whose adaptation to sevens surprised even his own camp. Jordan Sepho does not lay it on thick, but the compliment is worth its weight in gold.

He confirms it: “Honestly, to adapt that quickly shows he is a player who can do everything.” Like many of his team-mates, he watched the France captain absorb in a few months the demands of a discipline with very different codes.

Target: Los Angeles 2028

The day after the Games, though, everything starts again. A new team is built, several senior players leave, the understandings disappear. Jordan Sepho is one of those holding the transition together. The podiums come back more slowly.

The target, now, has changed in scale. “We are aiming for Los Angeles 2028. Now we want to win as much as possible, and keep our medal.“

The win in Bordeaux a few days ago reminded him of the feelings of the Games. Because playing at home “transforms” the France team. “In front of our families and our own crowd, we want to give even more. At home we are really very strong. We need to manage to do the same everywhere.“

A closed SVNS circuit, mixed feelings

Everywhere, because sevens too is in the middle of an upheaval. Since the world series was reformed, only eight teams make up the permanent elite. It is a change Jordan Sepho greets with mixed feelings. “The standard is very even. Today anyone can beat anyone.”

But the closed format also leaves him with a sense of something unfinished. “It is a shame, we always play the same teams. It is much harder for the other nations to come up and stay among the eight.“

At nearly 28, he is already looking beyond his playing career. Psychology studies appeal to him. So, perhaps, does the police. He gives himself another “seven or eight seasons” before turning a different page.

Fifteens, “not the same vibe”

The fifteen-a-side game, on the other hand, does not make him dream. “It does not really appeal to me. It is not the same vibe.” His stage is the wide-open spaces of sevens. Where endurance, pace and clear thinking count for as much as power.

Where a former basketballer who came to rugby late found his place. And where he fully intends to stay until Los Angeles. Because after Paris, a gold medal is no longer a dream. It is a title to defend.

Those who are around him day to day describe a “quiet player“. He prefers to talk about “balance“. In a sport where emotions can swing a match in seconds, Jordan Sepho has established himself as one of the changing room’s regulators. “I am the one who reminds the others to stay calm. Whether we lose or win, you must not get carried away.” A quality almost as precious as his pace.

Réunion and rougail saucisses

The years pass, the medals pile up, the world series legs follow one another between Dubai, Vancouver, Hong Kong and Madrid. But when you ask Jordan Sepho what he misses most about Réunion, where his mother is from, he answers neither the sun nor the beaches. “Everything. The people, the culture, the food…“

So he cooks carrys for his team-mates, and rougail saucisses too, waits impatiently for December and goes back to the island whenever the calendar allows. An Olympic champion, yes. But first and foremost a man from Réunion who has never really left home.