Hamilton fencer one to watch at 2024 Paris Olympics

Eleanor Harvey made quite the impression at her first Olympic competition and now she is hoping to build on that at the 2024 Paris Games which begin Thursday (July 26).

The Hamilton fencer is certainly one to watch at this year’s Olympic Games.

Harvey made her Olympic debut at RIO 2016 and what a start it was, knocking off the worlds No. 1 ranked fencer to advance to the quarterfinals of the women’s individual foil event. Her seventh-place finish in Rio were the best-ever by a Canadian individual fencer at the Olympics.

That was just one year after Harvey helped lead Canada to women’s foil gold at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto.

Canada’s women’s foil team enters the Paris Games as the fifth-ranked team in the world. The national squad includes a team of accomplished fencers along with Harvey, including Jessica Guo, who won individual women’s foil gold at the 2024 FIE Junior World Championships earlier this month.

“On behalf of the entire Canadian fencing family, I would like to express how proud I am of our athletes for their qualification for Paris 2024,” said David Howes, Executive Director of Canadian Fencing Federation. “It is because of the hard work and dedication of our athletes and coaches that we will have the largest team since 1988 when there were fewer restrictions to the number of teams that a country could send to the Olympics.

“I am looking forward to cheering on our athletes as they challenge the rest of the world in Paris.”

Harvey also made her mark individually, winning a bronze in women’s foil at the Pan Am Games in Lima in 2019. She also medalled in two team events, winning silver in team foil and bronze in team sabre.

At the Pam Games at Santiago 2023, she was a double silver medallist in both the individual and team foil events.

Harvey has been a force for the national fencing team and that continued at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. There she reached the Table of 16 in individual foil to help Canada to a fifth-place finish in team foil.

Havery carries a wealth of international experience into Paris. Along with her appearances at the Olympics and Pan Am Games, she has competed in six FIE World Junior Championships, win silver in individual foil in 2014 and 2015.

Since 2014, she has competed at the senior FIE World Championships each year. She finished ninth in 2018 and 2022.

Harvey, who began fencing at the age 10, attended Ohio State University and would graduate in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and gender studies.

With the Buckeyes, she won the NCAA Championships as a junior in 2016. In 2017 she ended up in a tie for third at the NCAA Championships.

Harvey, who collects Starbucks mugs for her mother in her travels, runs a small business called Lennygarb, where she puts her original designs on Canadian made and upcycled revamped clothing.

Fencing will take place July 27 to August 4 (Day 1 to 9) at the Grand Palais.