McMaster fencing attends celebration of first Canadian Olympic fencing medalist, Marauder women's foilist demonstrates the sport with the history-making athlete

On the evening of Wednesday Nov. 14, 2024, members of the Hamilton community celebrated Hamiltonian and Olympic fencer Eleanor Harvey for making history at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris this past summer.

On the second day of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the 29-year-old foil fencer won the bronze medal in women's individual foil after defeating opponent Alice Volpi of Italy 15-12.

With this, she became the first Canadian in history to win an Olympic medal in fencing. No Canadian before Harvey competing in any of the three disciplines of fencing - foil, épée and sabre - had ever brought home a medal from the Olympics.

No Canadian before Harvey competing in any of the three disciplines of fencing - foil, épée and sabre - had ever brought home a medal from the Olympics.

The celebration of her accomplishment was held in downtown Hamilton in The King John Building at Gore Park. The event was hosted by Hamilton artist Patrick Bermingham.

Over 100 individuals were in attendance, including the Mayor of Hamilton, Andrea Horwath, who briefly spoke at the event and congratulated Harvey on her success. Journalist Steve Paikin attended and interviewed Harvey about her career and what it was like in the heat of the moment just before and after winning her medal in the Grand Palais in Paris.

Also in attendance were some members of McMaster's varsity fencing team, as well as Head Coach Dave O'Donnell and coaches Allan Fein and Vickie Ho-Devine. Before the formal part of the event, several Marauder fencers had the opportunity to meet and speak with Harvey.

Later during the formal celebration, Harvey demonstrated foil fencing to everyone in attendance with Marauder foilist Aurora Boone. The two fenced a bout against one another in the centre of the venue, with all the attendees watching along the side of the room.

During the formal celebration, Harvey demonstrated foil fencing to everyone in attendance with Marauder foilist Aurora Boone.

After the event, Boone spoke to The Silhouette about what it was like to fence with the ground-breaking Olympian. She described the nerves she came into the match with.

"I was definitely nervous. I did end up getting a point on her which I was really happy about so I didn't get totally wiped. But yeah, I was definitely nervous. But once I got into it, I felt like the nerves kind of flew away. We were surrounded by a huge crowd of people and I had pretty much totally forgotten that once we actually started fencing. So I was pretty excited,” said Boone.

Boone also described the high level of skill which Harvey possessed and demonstrated. Boone tried to trick Harvey several times into following a pattern and then catching her off guard by changing that pattern, but Harvey would not fall for it.

“She was incredibly skilled at knowing that I was trying to fool her in that sense, so she didn't fall for it, which definitely showed me a lot of her strength because usually even the strongest of fencers, it's really hard for them to pinpoint those little intricacies,” said Boone.

The event and the match has inspired Boone for the current McMaster fencing season.

“I think it's definitely given me a lot of inspiration and a bit of a fire under me to feel like this is how good you can be when you really put in the work and you do a lot of practice,” said Boone.

Eleanor Harvey's Olympic medal is a moment in history for Canadian fencing. Following her Olympic medal, Harvey has already won another bronze medal at the women's foil world cup in Tunisia and she looks forward to achieving more success in the future.

After more than four years, the world's largest tournament is back on the main stage, and McMaster had multiple venues hosting watch parties that you can tune into  

It’s been over four years since the last world cup in Russia, held in the summer of 2018. Since then, there have been many fans who have been awaiting the return of this event and finally the time has come. A world cup during winter. Over the course of the month, soccer fans at McMaster University had and will have the opportunity to tune into numerous events and watch parties that will be occurring throughout the course of the event.   

While it has already passed, the “World Cup with the Dean” event had been organized for Nov. 23, where students had the opportunity to join the dean of DeGroote School of Business to watch the opening Canada game against Belgium. The rare opportunity features complimentary food and snacks for the attendees.   

Another source for watch parties occurring around campus is the OSCARplus website, which has been helpful for students all the way through. On the website, students will be able to find over a dozen watch parties that are offered by International Student Services and for the time being are only showing the group stage games, with a view of expanding during the play-off stages. Although no prior registration is required for each game, it is a first-come first-serve basis for all students, with most of the games being broadcasted in the Student Centre (MUSC B118).   

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A third opportunity for soccer fans at McMaster to tune into the World Cup comes via the McMaster Sports Community, a regular watch party host at the school. The club intends to hold their final World Cup watch party on Dec. 2 at 2:00 p.m., viewing the Serbia vs Switzerland affair. Food and drinks will be provided to attendees free of charge, and the event will be held in Burke Science Building, room 115.  

There is no doubt that there are soccer fans among the student population that will be tuning into this year's biggest sports event, and although it is the first world cup ever being hosted in the winter, it opens the opportunity for McMaster to offer as many student-led events for the matches as possible.   

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