How to pronounce “fencing” in English

That makes it our style.Fencing is a non-contact combat sport.

But imagine having all of the tools.Fencing is a game of physical chess.And so yeah, you can be fast, you can be strong, but the key thing about fencing is the mental game.

What is it, do you think, that kind of got you drawn into fencing, even though you were different from the other people whoare fencing with at the time, and it didn't seem like your community was up for participating.What drew you into the sport and started to get you training, maybe several hours a day, even quite young?

What would you do with her?On fencing? Yeah. OK, I like that.

To start off, tell us about your sport.I think surfing and fencing is very different.Not all of us do it.

I just-- so, I'm French.And the fencing is a French sport.And it's very-- I wouldn't say very common.

How do you maintain this drive and enthusiasm in the highest level of competition?In my discipline in fencing, I'm lucky enough to see the sport change a lot.The sport changes crazily.

But it's just a feeling you get from watching.I guess the fencing is the same, right?There's a different style.

Like, yeah, you cannot explain what you feel when you step on these podiums, on these strips.We call that a fencing strip.And you're right there.

I mean, yeah, there is not a big gap for me.I've been fencing my whole life.Ma has been surfing his whole life.

But you stand alone on that piece.But in fencing at the Olympics or any competition, you have individual events.And you have team events.

That makes it our style.But for us in fencing, it's very exclusive.

I only expose my face and my hands.And in fencing, that's the only thing that you expose, I guess, is your hands.Your body is covered.

Everybody wore pants. Everybody wore long jackets.And even though fencing is not super popular in the Black community, my parents wanted me to try it.Well, amazing, so it's a coincidence of the uniform of the sport that really drew you to it.

And all the top schools that I plan to apply to, they were all in the top 10 in the country.They all have fencing teams.So for me, it was just kind of this easy no-brainer.

who chose to work hard.When I fencing, I was not the best in the room at all.I had two left feet.

and how it changed the way I was treated, and not necessarily from my peers, but more so from the adult perspective.So in fencing, there's an official who essentially tells you where the point is.So an action can happen, but it's up to the official to tell you where the point is.

So when I graduated from college, I graduated in the middle of the recession in 2007.And I was fencing.I got back into fencing.

And I was fencing.I got back into fencing.And I noticed that there had never been a woman of color on the US women's saber team, the national team.

I worked as a cashier in a store.I was officiating local fencing competitions.I was coaching a local high school team, all to fund this dream of qualifying for a national team.

You have a kind of perception module here that senses the outer world, and then you interpret all of this data--maybe also some internal fencing to try and answer questions like, where am I?What does the world around me look like?

That's me with the few additions that I had created.This is the Fencing Bonnet hat.It's made out of this material called And you can mold it with your hands.

What would you do with her?And I imagine in fencing and wrestling and boxing, anything that's one on one, it gets my mind thinking more.

you come in at the end of it.very narrow for those fencing geeks.

I consider it more as a passion.It's really-- I think about fencing all the time.For me, it's everything.

who has been a dual major in International Relations and African Studies.She was on the US Fencing Team from 2010 and in 2016, at the Rio Olympics, was part of the US Saber team who took the bronze over Italy.Sorry, Italians. In the US, she's also known as the first hijab-wearing woman to represent the US Olympic team, to represent the US at the Olympics.

And I always had to go to the sporting goods store with my mom to buy Spandex, or to buy a t-shirt underneath my volleyball uniform.And I was 12 when we found fencing.I was actually in a car.

So for me, it was just kind of this easy no-brainer.I had to join the fencing team.And I remember trying to get my friends at the time to join a team with me.

They were all also women of color, girls of color.And the first day of fencing tryouts when we walked in, there were a sea of children, none of which look like us, none of whom look like us.And I remember them saying there's no way we're fencing.

I had no idea what I was doing.There's three weapons in fencing, foil, epee and saber.I picked up a because I had a friend, a girl I became friends with at tryouts, who fenced epee.

We had well over 100 kids on the team, so it was a very, very large team, very successful team.And so from the start of my fencing career, I was just a part of a successful program that I think really challenged me to get betterto support my team, but also supported me even though ethnically, religiously, I was just different from everyone else.

but you were not amongst many people wearing what you're wearing, and dealing with the clothing issues you were talking about in sport.And you mentioned walking into the fencing room for the first time, and your friends just going, this is not for us.I actually read-- by the way, I can highly recommend the book.

Just to pause, because I think that you talked quite a bit.So you're saying in a fencing match, you'd make contact, or you make the slash that you need to do in saber,and expect the judge to then award the point to you, and you didn't feel it was coming to you.

And I think that it was really just the environment to fencing that I missed.I loved my high school fencing team.I loved my time at the Peter Westbrook Foundation.

But at the same time, the aggregate level investment in a productivity would be low.It was much cheaper than fencing.

you come in at the end of it.Because for the people who get fencing and know all the terminology, that can be really sexy, but the slice of the pie chart is

We'll work on that later on-- specialized in Saber.He is the current head coach of the Japanese fencing Olympic team.And he started his position after the Tokyo Olympics.

And it's very-- I wouldn't say very common.But it's quite easy to find a fencing club around you in France.So I just started when I was six.

It's a passion. I think about it all the time.It's very fun for me to watch fencing videos.It doesn't feel, once again, as a job.

I didn't really overthink it.And it was just a continued motion through my fencing career.And I coached at a very, very young age immediately.

That makes it our style.I mean, in fencing, actually, there's a team medal.

with coworkers at work.And I talked about the guy who worked for the fencing company, and the new boss didn't let him do that, and then he got fired for building stuff wrong.

And I'm a fencer, which I feel like most people wouldn't see someone who looks like me and immediately think, oh, professional fencer.But I always say that I didn't find fencing, but fencing kind of found me.I grew up playing sports, a lot of different sports, but as a kid who would eventually wear the hijab, which is the scarf that I have on,

And the first day of fencing tryouts when we walked in, there were a sea of children, none of which look like us, none of whom look like us.And I remember them saying there's no way we're fencing.It's not happening. And I could see now in hindsight how just not seeing yourself represented in a space

When I was applying to Duke, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, I knew that I needed to set myself apart.And to me, fencing was that ticket.And that earlier, you mentioned just being athletically gifted-- I always say that I'm a girl from Jersey

So I was, like, oh, I'll fence epee, too.Epee is like they're the marathoners of fencing.It's very, very slow.

I became one of the best athletes in the state.My high school team was arguably the strongest fencing program in the nation.We had well over 100 kids on the team, so it was a very, very large team, very successful team.

And there was some bullying at school, and then there was turning up in fencing and being the only one.And then I remember when you got good at fencing, you went to what they call the Junior Olympics, which is an American phrase for the National Championships,as I understand it.

That finds a moment.Then I know you've taken a pause from fencing for a while.You'd been traveling and you go back to the Peter Westbrook gym, and you walk into a room full of a huge number of fences