Karate, baseball, and table tennis were the sports I trained before fencing. Later, I added ultimate frisbee, basketball, and tennis. Sports have always been my way of connecting with others, especially as my family moved every year while I was growing up. I first started fencing in middle school and went to my first competition in 2015. The date is recorded as May 2nd, 2015, on AskFred.net.
By today’s standards, I started fencing rather late, at age 13. Nonetheless, I had fun at the start, experiencing a niche sport while also having a large enough community to share the interest with. Up until 2019, I went to group classes, took private lessons, and went mainly to local and regional tournaments, with the occasional Junior Olympics or national tournament. My results were unremarkable, but I persisted and kept going throughout this time. Fencing was the first sport where I wasn’t naturally the best when stepping into the room, which I often felt was true when playing sports at the youth local level. In a sense, this attracted me more to the sport. Of course, the feeling of not being the best in the room only grows when competing at higher levels. There are levels to everything.
I started college when COVID was first at its peak. I had not planned on fencing NCAA Division I during this time and instead focused mainly on my studies. With COVID restricting travel, and then a twisted ankle from playing basketball, one thing led to the other, and I ended up stepping away from the sport for two years. This would have been the peak of my early competitive career, as I would have competed in the Junior division. Instead, I was at a small Midwest school studying organic chemistry. While my school did not have NCAA fencing, there was a fencing club. One day, I heard that some members of the club had prior fencing experience like me. Funnily enough, my small school had quite an impressive club team, and my teammates there reignited my passion for fencing. While they were not NCAA accolades, I earned 3rd place in individual events at the Midwest college fencing competition in my junior and senior years, and first place in the team event my senior year. Some taste of success, however small, I think was a large driving factor in my decision to keep fencing.
Looking back while I write my story is funny. Just like how I took two years off from fencing when entering college, I took a two-year break from my professional goals after graduation. During this time, I jumped into the routine of working during the day and fencing in the evening. I moved back home after graduation, connected with a nearby fencing club, and continued my training with the same coach while also adding a few new ones. While I had the fencing foundations taught by the same maestro, it still took about a year or two for my results to catch up. Some highlights of this time were the tournaments and training camps I visited. I fenced internationally for the first time in Singapore, trained at a camp hosted by Olympians Lee Kiefer and Gerek Meinhardt, and went to LA to train with Nick Itkin, Miles Chamley-Watson, and so many other high-level fencers. Meeting so many kind individuals during my travels was, and is, perhaps the best part of fencing.
Fencing has interesting terminology, calling the 40+ division “veteran” and my current division “senior.” While I am now older than many other fencers, I aim to continue my own unique journey. As life gives me more “senior-level” responsibilities, I aim to compete and persist just as I did in my early teens.