Young fencer Hannah LeBor is making waves throughout British fencing.
Aged just 17 the Londoner secured a remarkable hat-trick of medals for England at the Commonwealth Championships in August. She took gold in the Cadet (under-17s) Women’s Epee Individual event and was also the youngest member of the Junior (under-20s) Women’s Epee team that also took gold. Her third medal came in the form of silver in the Cadet Women’s Epee team category.
If that recent run of success wasn’t enough, LeBor managed to add another title to her name as she became Junior Epee National Champion two weeks ago. Quite simply, this fencer is one to watch and she has a drive you’d struggle to find in most other 17-year-olds.
Paris 2024 is already a target for her but she’s learning incredibly quickly after she moved up to the under-20 age group for the very first time.
“I was a bit worried about starting this season in the under-20s, being the youngest one,” she told Mirror Sport . “The Commonwealths was a nice little way to transition because there’s still under-17 and under-20 teams.
“I think that was actually really helpful, and made me be a lot more confident going into the Nationals knowing I can fence well at under-20s, and finish my under-17 season with a gold. I think that was a really important step.”
The Commonwealth experience
That experience at the Commonwealth Championships, which ran parallel to the Commonwealth Games that lit up Birmingham, has been key for the Londoner, who fences with Knightsbridge Fencing Club. It’s an experience unlike many other competitions on the fencing calendar and should give her plenty of experience along the way.
“I really enjoyed it,” she said. “Fencing is an individual sport but everyone also loves the team event because it’s fun and we had a really good team spirit. We got medals in both under-17 and under-20s, which is pretty amazing.”
She added: “Even in individuals, if your team-mates are there cheering you on, and obviously I cheer on my team-mates as well, it lifts you up and it lifts them up.
“It gives you a little edge because it was that kind of audience - my family were there and my fencing friends, which I think helps a lot.
“When you get a hit, and there’s clapping and cheering - and it was the same for all my other team-mates as well - you can tell when you’re fencing well. When you’re happy you do better.”
Olympic ambitions
The Olympics plays a vital role in LeBor’s love for fencing as she first saw the sport watching London 2012 on the TV, while living in Hungary at the time. On the TV was Hungarian fencer Aron Szilagyi who won gold in the men’s sabre, the first of what set him on the way to stardom within fencing quarters.
Szilagyi would go on to win gold again at the 2016 Games and at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games, becoming the only male fencer in history to win three individual Olympic gold medals.
As LeBor says herself, Szilagyi is the reason she started fencing and while the pair of them may fence different weapons - Szilagyi is a sabreur while LeBor is an epeeist - the young Brit harbours her own Olympic dreams.
“It’s [Paris 2024] a big ambition,” she said. “I would say obviously that’s the goal but also Los Angeles 2028. It’s really difficult to qualify from Europe.”
She continued: “A lot of luck goes into it as well. At competitions you have to have a good draw and things like that, so you have to be prepared to let things go that are not in your control and then be happy with yourself regardless.
“It’s really exciting moving into seniors this season now, as well as under-20s, and getting to be part of the experience of the whole thing and this high level of fencing. It’s a privilege because I get to fence amazing fencers and people I look up to - that’s really cool.”
"You have to learn not to put your worth onto how you do in a competition"
One of the benefits of sport - any sport - is what it can give to people in terms of skills and developing them as humans. For someone so young, LeBor is a perfect example of that as she speaks so eloquently on some deep subjects.
As she juggles her A-Levels alongside her training, and developing as an athlete, those life lessons become ever more important.
“Fencing has taught me a lot of very important things,” she explained. “One is that you fail along the way and you lose fights. You have to learn not to put your worth onto how you do in a competition and if you really want something you have to fight for it because things won’t just be given to you. You have to actually go after them and don’t stop.
“Even if I win an Olympic gold, which is obviously a big if for any athlete, I’d still continue fencing. Obviously I love to win but I do it because I love fencing.
“When you’re angry at the sport, because you didn’t do well at a competition, you have to go back in and remember why you started it.
“At school as well, if you mess up a test you’re not going to drop out of school, you’re going to go back and study even harder to get the grades you can achieve. It helps in school for me because I know to work super hard if I really want something.”
Fencing obviously has plenty of growing to do in the UK, but as is evident with so many other sports, all it can take is one personality or some sporting success to help give it a bounce.
Back in 2016, during the Rio Games, Richard Kruse came so close to medalling for Britain in the men’s foil competition, finishing fourth. But, while he didn’t come away with medal success, his efforts helped land fencing a spot on primetime TV.
It sparked an interest in the sport at the time that many fencers hope to see again one day and LeBor hopes the sport can get further recognition in the future.
“The main reason it should get more recognition is that if you start fencing at the ages of 7-10 you learn skills that, even if you stop fencing after a couple of years, will stay with you,” she said. “You have to make sure that your mind and body work together and obviously it helps with mental strength a lot.
“If you do a sport - not just fencing, any sport - it’s important because you build connections outside of your normal environment, which means you get more diverse experiences in a sense. Especially in niche sports you’ll go into a different world to what you experience every day so it helps broaden your mind.”
