The athletes who became Olympians because of ‘Star Wars’
livemint.comPARIS—Every four years, when people watching the Olympics find themselves oddly transfixed by fencing, they tend to have a few questions. What just happened? Who got that point? Why is everyone always screaming like complete maniacs? And how does anyone in the U.S. become an Olympian in such an obscure sport? For most fencers on Team USA, the answer is that they were following their parents and older siblings.
Others learned what fencing was when they turned on their TVs and became transfixed by watching people stab each other. But a surprising number of the fencers in Paris actually discovered the sport a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. They started fencing because of “Star Wars." From the moment they saw Luke Skywalker duel with Darth Vader, they knew they wanted to wield lightsabers.
Since they couldn’t play with laser swords, they settled for real ones instead. American fencer Maia Chamberlain’s first experience with the sport that would take her from California to Princeton and now on to Paris was battling her father with toy lightsabers. She always took the green one to be like Luke.
When it was time for her to pick a fencing weapon, she traded her lightsaber for an actual saber. U.S. fencer Mitchell Saron has a similar origin story.
After seeing “Revenge of the Sith," he begged his parents to buy him toy swords. When his mother finally dragged him to a New Jersey fencing club, he learned the rules of foil, epee and saber—and picked his future weapon. “Saber is the one where you can slash," Saron said.
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