After seeing his team mates of the Italian épée team lose the gold medal to France from the sidelines, Cantone assumed his Olympics to be over, as he was not entered for the individual event, but when his team mate Dario Mangiarotti sustained a foot injury, Cantone replaced him at the last minute. Cantone made it through to the final pool, losing his first two bouts to compatriots Carlo Agostini and Edoardo Mangiarotti, but he won each of his remaining seven matches to take an unexpected gold medal. Cantone also won a gold (1949) and bronze (1947) at the World Championships in the team competition. He later lived as a farmer in Brazil for about 10 years. He returned to Italy to watch the 1960 Olympic fencing events and then lived the rest of his life in Casalino, Novara, to manage a car dealership and the family farm.
Date of birth also erroneously seen as 7 December 1922 and Date of death also seen as 5 November 1997. Our dates are confirmed in a biography of him by Maurizio Massa.
Italy