(Paris) Canada’s “grand dame” of wheelchair fencing wants even more for her sport.
Sylvie Morel may have competed in her last fight at the Paralympic Games on Tuesday in Paris, but the 68-year-old native of Pincourt is not done working to increase the visibility of her sport.
Morel represented Canada in wheelchair fencing since the sport’s debut at the Paralympics in 2000 in Sydney, Australia. Tuesday marked her fourth career Paralympic appearance.
“Motivation, ambition, ego and more, genetically, I’m lucky,” said Morel, revealing her recipe for having lasted so long among the elite of her sport.
I don’t feel my age, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wake up this morning with pain all over.
Sylvie Morel
PHOTO DAVE HOLLAND, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Fencer Sylvie Morel
“You have to stay in shape. It’s different now than it was in our mothers’ time. I remember my mother at 60. She didn’t look like me.”
Morel is the oldest Canadian representative in Paris and the oldest competitor in women’s fencing.
She lost her sabre duel 15-1 to 2017 world champion Nataliia Morkvych, who is 32.
“I was playing a world champion, a Ukrainian who basically gave me a free lesson,” Morel said. “She was nice enough to let me score a point.”
The sport is faster and more countries are playing it than a quarter of a century ago, she said.
Morel is not happy with the treatment of wheelchair fencing in Canada.
“Nothing is happening. No one is doing anything to develop wheelchair fencing and that makes me angry because it is my passion,” she insisted.
I find that we are always left aside to make room for the “real athletes” and that really annoys me.
Sylvie Morel
She ran a wheelchair fencing school for 15 years and now coaches several athletes.
Morel no longer competes in the épée event as it causes bursitis in his arm.
She said the Paris Paralympics would be her swan song, but she hopes to return to the Games as a member of the delegation to support the next generation.
“I have 28 years of experience and knowledge,” she recalled.
Morel was injured in a car accident in 1993 and began wheelchair fencing three years later.
“When you wake up one day and you’re missing a leg, you don’t feel 100 percent like you did the day before,” Morel said.
“Sports helped me regain a sense of worth because it didn’t matter if I had a leg or not. I could play sports. It helped me in that way.”