Renaissance Magazine

Sports Highlights of the
Week
It is official, the French Jousting
Open champion of 1578 goes to Christophe
Gusto, one of France’s most courageous and
noble knights. Gusto is young, just nineteen
years of age, and looks to be a promising
knight. Before the tournament started, King
Henry III of France had this to say, “My advisors
have told me of Gusto’s strength,
technique and intelligence as a knight, making
his victory none of a surprise to me.” On
his way to victory, Gusto had to endure four
straight days of brutal fighting, cold weather,
and even the flu. To seal the victory,
Gusto had to defeat four time champion,
Ethan Williams of England. Williams has
four championships under his belt, and a
victory against Christophe Gust would have
been his fifth. It is unknown if thirty-one
year old Williams will return next year.
While interviewing Gusto, he had this to say
about Ethan Williams, “I have so much respect
for him, he’s a guy I’ve been watching
since I was ten years old. To get my first
championship victory against him is unbelievable.
After the battle he found me
amongst the crowd and told me he was
proud of me and that the sky was the limit. I
would be honored if I could one day be as
great as him,” Gusto went on to say, “This is
just an amazing feeling, it probably won’t
seem real until I wake up tomorrow morning.”
Gusto is the youngest man ever the
win the French Jousting Open, and the
smallest one too. Standing at just five foot
seven inches, Gusto is small to be a jouster,
but he packs a punch, weighing in at twohundred
pounds he is very difficult to knock
off his horse. It seems as though France may
have found their knight of the future.
During the Renaissance period, Jousting
was a very popular event. Jousting is
when two people sit on horse facing each
other approximately one-hundred feet apart.
They then charge at each other with blunted
lances and attempt to nock each other off
their horses. This sport was very popular for
knights when they weren’t in active battle.
Jousting allowed knights to show off their
skill, balance and strength as a knight, while
also keeping them in good physical shape.
Usually, knights who jousted only did so in
their younger years up until their midthirties.
Eventually, as knights became less
important in combat, jousting was more of a
recreational sport for the public to enjoy. A
seating ring was set up around the jousting
area and fans would gather in the hundreds
to watch. Other sports during the Renaissance
were Tennis, early forms of Soccer,
and Archery, none of which were as popular
as Jousting.