‘Bittersweet’ fourth-place finish won’t break fencing team’s ‘powerful’ bond

Team Canada came agonizingly close to a second Olympic medal in fencing on Day 6 at Paris 2024.

Four days after Eleanor Harvey won Canada’s first ever Olympic fencing medal in the women’s individual foil, she was back at it on Thursday in the women’s team foil event along with Jessica Guo and Yunjia Zhang.

The team opened the day with a 38-36 win over France in the Table of 8, then dropped the semifinal to the eventual gold medallists, the USA. That set up what would be a back-and-forth battle with Japan for the bronze medal.

READ: Eleanor Harvey adjusting to ‘surreal’ feeling of being an Olympic medallist

Fencing teams are composed of three athletes. Each fencer faces off once with each fencer on the opposing team for a total of nine relays. Each bout lasts a maximum of three minutes.

The winner is the first team to reach 45 points or the team with the most points at the end of the nine bouts. Japan came in as the fourth-ranked women’s foil team in the world while Canada was ranked sixth.

The match was competitive throughout, with Japan taking a lead of several points and the Canadians battling back. Heading into the ninth and final bout, Japan held a 32-29 lead. It was up to Harvey to close the three-point gap against Japan’s Yuka Ueno.

“I didn’t feel pressure because we always talked before about just saying that we win as a team, we lose as a team,” said Harvey. “So I knew that no matter what happened, we’ll leave together feeling really happy.”

She and Ueno attacked each other, and Japan held a 33-32 lead into the final minute. Despite Harvey’s best efforts in the frenzied final moments, Ueno was able to avoid a hit and the Japanese team claimed bronze.

The result still represents Canada’s best-ever finish in the women’s team foil event, and matches Canada’s best-ever finish in any team fencing event.

“It feels bittersweet,” said Harvey. “Fencing on the podium strip at the Olympics—I got to do it twice in this tournament, which is really cool. Japan’s a strong team. They beat us more often than we beat them.

“But that time it was really, really close. And we really were able to rally and stay in it.”

Harvey, 29, was competing in her third Olympics, while it was a second Games for Guo, 19, and an Olympic debut for 16-year-old Zhang. But the discrepancy in experience did nothing to take away from the team’s camaraderie.

“I don’t really take my age into consideration when it comes to actually fencing at the Olympics,” said Zhang. “I just feel like we’re all equal. We’re all athletes, every one of us. If we’re here, that means we fought hard for this. We’re equal.”

For a nation that hadn’t won an Olympic medal in fencing until earlier this week, the ascent of this team serves as an encouraging sign of what could be to come.

“It is so powerful when we all just work together,” said Zhang. “I feel like we have nothing to lose as a team. We’ve work so hard. We prepared so much for this. And yeah, there’s nothing to lose. I love my team.”

Harvey also attributes much of the team’s success to the support and knowledge of national coach Alex Martin. She says that the work done in the preparations for Paris really helped the athletes feel confident out on the piste.

And after how these Games have turned out, the best could be yet to come.

“I’m hoping that all of us stick around for the next while, especially after such a good experience together here,” said Harvey. “We got a lot closer leading up to the Olympics, I think that showed in how we performed.”