Eleanor Harvey wins historic bronze medal for Canada in women’s foil fencing

Eleanor Harvey has become Canada’s first ever Olympic medallist in fencing.

The 29-year-old won the bronze medal in the women’s individual foil event on Day 2 of Paris 2024, defeating Italy’s Alice Volpi 15-12 in the third-place match. Volpi is the fourth-ranked women’s foil fencer in the world, while Harvey came into the Games ranked 14th.

But Harvey carried a winning record against Volpi into the bout, having won four of their previous seven meetings, including the most recent in May 2022.

Coming off her 15-9 loss in the semifinal to American Lauren Scruggs, Harvey went on the attack as soon as the signal was given to start. She was up 3-0 before Volpi could put a point on a board. She soon made it 6-1 and then after Volpi closed the gap a little, Harvey went up 8-3 with a minute to go in the opening of three 3-minute rounds.

No matter how much Volpi tried to find a way past Harvey’s defence, the Canadian was not giving way and took a 9-4 lead into the first break, leaving her just six points away from the 15 needed for the victory.

Harvey started the second round just as she did the first, with a quick point just seconds in. With Harvey up 12-10 and just over a minute gone in the round, Volpi took a medical timeout after appearing to suffer a cramp. When the action resumed, Harvey could see the bronze medal in her sights. She went up 13-10, then 14-11, leaving Harvey one hit away from the win. The closest Volpi could make it was 14-12 before Harvey got the 15th point she needed to put her name in the Canadian history books.

In her Olympic debut at Rio 2016, Harvey achieved Canada’s previous best ever Olympic result in any individual fencing event when she placed seventh in the women’s individual foil, making it as far as the quarterfinals after defeating the world number one.