Paul Jacquot is an Olympian rower who grew up in France, attended college in the U.S.A. before moving to Switzerland to train and represent his mother’s country at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 

Paul is originally from Burgundy’s Chalon-sur-Saone, where a gold medal in rowing by countryman Adrien Hardy inspired him and other locals to get involved in the sport. While his mother initially had signed him up for regular swim training, it was young Paul’s size that caught coaches’ eyes and they asked him if he wanted to give the sport a go. 

The rower quickly blossomed into a young talent. With his massive 2.03-meter frame, Paul was participating at international and world championship events by his teenage years. 

Paul had a desire to compete in the U.S. and pursued his rowing career by attending prestigious Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A. which featured one of the strongest teams in the country. 

After graduating college in 2018 with degrees in economics and archaeology, he decided he would represent his mother’s native country and train at the Swiss national training centre near Lucerne. Paul became a regular on the country’s heavyweight four boat with appearances at Worlds in 2018 and 2019, where an Olympic qualification slot was booked. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, he was a member of the Swiss team that placed ninth.

Since finishing his elite rowing career, Paul has focused more on cycling and attended graduate school at HSG in St. Gallen, earning a master’s degree in Strategy and International Management. In his free time, he loves going on virtual rides with his friends around the world on his stationary bike and reading about polar history and explorations. He wrote his thesis on Ernest Shackleton.