Olympic bronze medal fencer has roots in Calgary

Fencing is 1 of nan longest-standing Olympic sports, and yet it wasn’t until 2016 that a Canadian made nan quarterfinals.

On Monday, Team Canada could proudly opportunity it has surgery nan obstruction to nan podium: 29-year-old Eleanor Harvey made history astatine nan Paris Olympic Games connected Day 2, besting Italy’s Alice Volpi successful nan women’s foil individual bronze badge bout.

Harvey trains retired of Epic Fencing Club successful Calgary, which is big to galore talented fencers who person made Calgary home. Her champion friend and Tokyo 2020 Olympic teammate Alanna Goldie stayed up each nighttime to watch Harvey make history.

“We’ve travelled nan world together,” said Goldie. “We are each other’s biggest support systems. It’s difficult to judge it’s really happened.”

Fellow coach and erstwhile Olympic teammate Kelleigh Ryan besides useful astatine Epic Fencing. She made her Olympic debut astatine Tokyo 2020 wherever she placed eighth, which — astatine that clip — was Canada’s second-best Olympic consequence ever successful an individual event.

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“She’s nan first personification connected nan strip, and nan past personification out,” said Ryan of Harvey’s activity ethic. “This will thief put Canada connected nan map.”

Friends and teammates of Harvey telephone her “fun,” “quirky” and “incredibly superior erstwhile it comes to fencing”.

Training partner Carlos Padua watched from Puerto Rico, and says it felt for illustration they were each winning bronze pinch Harvey, aft having spent truthful overmuch clip training together.

“She’s nan personification retired location moving successful -30 degrees Celsius,” Padua laughs. “There is cipher much deserving of this win.”