First female cadet from Georgia joins France’s Saint-Cyr military academy

Teona Labadze, a cadet of Georgia’s National Defence Academy, has become the first female student from the country to join the Special Military School of Saint-Cyr, one of France’s two most senior military education institutions, the Georgian Academy said on Wednesday. 

The Georgian school said Labadze had been selected in a shortlist of 20 candidates representing 40 countries last year.

In comments on her career path, Labadze said she had joined the Cadet Military Lyceum in Georgia’s west at the age of 14, before passing exams at the Academy with the goal of joining the French school.

Labadze was enroled in Saint-Cyr last year. Photo:  Georgia’s National Defence Academy.

Three male cadets of the Academy - Zurab Manchkhashvili, Guram Sepiashvili and Giorgi Tsintkiladze - studied at Saint-Cyr in the past.

The French academy was founded in 1803 by Napoleon Bonaparte and is offering a three-year educational programme for master’s degrees in management, international relations and engineering, with graduates commissioned as first lieutenants in the French armed forces. 

Saint-Cyr is also joined by dozens of foreign cadets annually, a tradition that dates to the earliest years of the academy.