Fencing | Eleanor Harvey Makes History

(Paris) Eleanor Harvey was not on anyone’s radar. In a matter of hours Sunday, she went from complete unknown to Canada’s second Olympic medalist at the Paris Games. She is also, as of Sunday, the greatest fencer in the country’s Olympic history.

The 29-year-old from Hamilton is the first Canadian fencer to win an Olympic medal.

“I’m in shock. I think that as soon as I’m alone, I’ll be able to do it,” she said, two hours after her victory, with a bronze medal in foil around her neck and the Canadian flag on her shoulders.

Waking up on Sunday morning, the 14^e The world-ranked foil fencer knew that if she wanted to reach a medal match, she would have to overcome several members of the top 5.

And that’s what she did.

In the round of 16, she crushed Poland’s Julia Walczyk-Klimaszyk, ranked fifth in the world, 15-6. In the quarter-finals, she survived a five-point deficit to win worthyly 15-14 against Martina Favaretto, ranked third in the world.

“Usually I would have panicked. And it doesn’t work. I had to calm down and understand the situation,” she told us after her duel against Italy’s Favaretto. Right after, she went to eat her favorite snack, Sour Patch Kids. “It’s for energy,” she said.

Her bronze medal match was less electrifying than the semifinal she lost to American Lauren Scruggs, 15-9. Still, in the most important match of her life, the Canadian showed calm and control. She never doubted she could topple Alice Volpi, ranked fourth in the world.

In the Grand Palais, Harvey showed grace and determination. She ended her day on the floor, exhausted, but victorious 15-12, after a final successful and fatal touch for her opponent.

Harvey had just made history.

The course

With a bachelor’s degree in psychology and gender studies from Ohio State University, the vegan-only consumer also founded her own fashion company.

Harvey’s story is one of sacrifice. His mother sold the family home to fund his racing, among other things.

Despite detours and obstacles that her family would have liked to have avoided, the veteran was at her third Games, after an astonishing 7^e place in Rio in 2016 and a disappointing 16^e place in Tokyo in 2021.

Despite all the will and ambition in the world, Harvey’s Olympic medal hopes were fading. By Sunday morning, only one Canadian reporter, from Calgary, where she lives, was assigned to cover her. With 9^e and 17^e positions in the last two World Championships, nothing predestined her to grab an Olympic medal in the most prestigious palace in France.

Having lunch before arriving at the stadium, she “never in her life” thought she would be on the podium later in the day.

The gift of a lifetime

“I dedicated my whole life to fencing to be the best,” she confessed.

Harvey will be 30 in January. She is at the top of her game and this medal may have just changed her plans. “I want to keep going. I feel like I have no reason not to keep going.”

To think that three years ago, after the Tokyo Games, she thought she was retiring. Until she teamed up with her current coach, Alex Martin.

The one who began her sporting career in karate, around the age of “8 or 9”, and who dreamed of breaking into this field, quickly bet everything on fencing, at 10 years old.

“We started with wooden sticks,” she recalls. Because back home in Hamilton, “I didn’t know fencing was a real thing. I thought it was just old-time knights fighting with swords.”

Eventually, she did some research, read several books, and discovered a passion. “When I found out it was an Olympic event, I said to myself that I was going to do it.”

It’s still a funny coincidence that Harvey learned to love his sport through books and that in a few years, it will be his name that will be inscribed in the books of Canadian Olympic history.