Olympic gold? Can't wait to have a stab - The Jewish Chronicle

For most of us, watching the Tokyo Olympics will be little more than that – an entertaining distraction.

For Hannah LeBor, however, a TV session in front of the 2012 London Games was a moment of inspiration that eventually led her to become one of Britain’s most promising young fencers.

“Fencing came on and I just thought ‘that looks cool. I want to try it’,” she says.

And the 16-year-old from Edgware, who is Britain’s top under-17 female fencer in the epee class – the category involving largest and heaviest of the three swords used in the sport – now has her sights set on an Olympic gold medal.

In the medium term, however, she is working towards competing in the European and World Fencing Championships next year.

She recently brought back two silver medals from the British Ranking Championships in Manchester and came second in the under-20s category.

That was a “big achievement”, she says. “I just thought ‘these people are a lot older than me, so I’m just going to fence my best and see what happens’. And it worked.”

When she attended her first fencing session she knew she “wanted to continue it for ever”. The sport, she says, has always been “a huge part of my life and I don’t want anything to change”.

Ms LeBor also competes internationally, coming in ninth place at a competition in Krakow, Poland last year and her team finished first in the under-15 category at the Hungarian national championships in 2019.

She is currently taking a well-earned break but she normally trains up to 12 hours a week across several coaching and sparring sessions.

She aspires to one day win an Olympic gold medal and says she enjoys the sport’s complexity.

“I like the fact that you have to have skill, strength and have to be really confident.

“I have to think a lot about whether I’m going to attack or defend and how I’m going to manage my time.”

But Ms LeBor’s dreams extend past fencing. She hopes to later work as a lawyer and manage her time between the sport and her career. She puts “school first and fencing a close second”.

While juggling both can be challenging, she says her school has been “very supportive”.

“They give me time off for international competitions and they’ve always been very proud of me and said that they support my fencing and that it’s amazing that I’m doing it,” she says.

Ms LeBor’s father Adam – an author and journalist – says the family “are immensely proud of Hannah and her sporting achievements”.

“She has worked very hard to be number one in under-17s girls epee and number six in under twenties,” he says.

“Fencing teaches valuable life skills such as resilience, focus and determination – but there is nothing like winning.”

And Ms LeBor, who describes herself as naturally competitive, says she looking forward to her next competition in September.

“I’m a bit nervous but that nervousness is good because it helps me focus.

“I’m always very excited before competitions because I love competitions.”