Canadian fencing community hopes Olympic medal will lead to more interest, funding

TORONTO — Canada’s fencing community is celebrating the country’s first Olympic medal in the sport — and hoping it will lead to a boost in support for athletes.

On Sunday, 29-year-old Eleanor Harvey won the bronze medal in the women’s individual foil, defeating the fourth-ranked foil fencer in the world.

The Hamilton, Ont., native struggled to absorb her victory in Paris, saying she felt like she was “in a dream.” Back in Canada, fencing coaches are elated about the country’s first-ever Olympic podium finish — and just as amazed as Harvey.

“Canada having a medal in fencing, it’s not something that we thought was possible,” said Pascal Heidecker, a coach based in Gatineau, Que., who was on the Canadian national team from 2009 to 2018.

Fencing, a sport dominated by European countries including Italy, France and Hungary, receives little government support in Canada, Heidecker said. When he competed on the national team, athletes had to pay to attend the world championships.

“The world circuit is mostly in Europe, so plane tickets, hotels, all of that was mostly out of pocket,” he said, adding that the team didn’t have a full-time national coach.

“We don't have the systems that they have in Europe, where they're basically professional athletes,” he said. “We're really not at that level.”

Still, Heidecker said more and more people have taken up fencing in Canada in recent years, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. "It’s an individual sport. We were allowed to resume probably before some other team sports, so it definitely created another interest,” he said. “It's been slowly but steadily increasing."

Chris Granert, a coach at the Toronto Fencing Club where Harvey trained for a few years, said he has known her since she started fencing as a young girl. “And she has always been … very, very determined. So I am very happy for her,” he said. “As long as I've known her, she's been working toward getting a medal on the world stage.”

Peter Ho, another coach at the club, said it was Harvey's long-standing dream to win an Olympic medal. “When she was 10, she always had visions (of) standing on the podium in the Olympics,” he said.

Ho said interest in fencing was already growing in Canada, and Harvey's win could inspire more young athletes to take up the sport.

There’s “a little bit of hero worship going on” among the students at the club in Toronto, Granert said. “I think we are going to see a big influx of people who want to try it out."

Heidecker said he hopes Harvey’s medal, alongside the eighth-place finish of Fares Arfa from Laval, Que., in the men’s individual sabre event Saturday, will lead to a much-needed funding boost for Canadian fencing. Previously, Canada’s best result was a 10th-place finish at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

The performances by Harvey and Arfa are "two historical results, basically back to back, and that's what Sport Canada looks at when they're attributing funding,” he said.

Heidecker, 32, also hopes more young people will be drawn to the sport following the Paris Olympics, just like he was when he was eight years old. “I really liked swords and knives .… My parents signed me up for a fencing class so I would stab people in an organized way,” he joked.

“It teaches you discipline. It's great exercise. It teaches you about respect, because you need your opponents to learn and train with and grow.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 29, 2024.

— By Maura Forrest in Montreal with files from Sharif Hassan in Toronto

The Canadian Press