Junior shines in international fencing competition

Northgate junior Madi Nishimura is a fencing champion for the U.S. Cadet National fencing team.

“I hope to compete in the 2020 Olympic Games, so I practice five to six days a week for several hours at a time at the Massialas Fencing Club in San Francisco,” said Nishimura.

In October, her sport took away from school for three days as she traveled to Budapest, Hungary, to compete in the the Women’s Individual Foil Cadet European Cup where her team finished second out of 33 teams.

A gymnastics injury when she was a freshman derailed her plans for that sport but opened the door to a passion she never would have imagined. Before dislocating her arm, she was a gymnast, but could no longer continue with the sport. While going through physical therapy, she tried fencing.

“I tried fencing as a joke, but quickly fell in love,” said Nishimura.

Sword fighting, now called fencing, requires two opponents to duel weapons,
or attack each other with foil, epee, or sabre swords. Fencing has been a sport since the 1400’s and was added to the Olympics competition in 1896. Nishimura likes many aspects of the sport and competition.

“You have to make tactical decisions and plan ahead,” said Nishimura. “I try to zone out everything around and simply focus on the present moment. Everything can go right if I stay calm and centered.”

Currently, Nishimura travels all over the country for competitions and is ranked second in Cadet Fencing and ninth in Junior Fencing nationally. If she can reach the top four in Senior Fencing, she could qualify for the Olympics.

She loves to travel and meeting other fencing athletes. In addition to Hungary, she has also travelled to Italy and France. “My favorite trip was my first year of fencing when I went to Paris for two weeks,” said Nishimura.

“I have several more trips coming up soon,” said Nishimura, including Paris and Germany in November. “Paris is just for training with my friends at one of the oldest clubs in the world (Tour d’Auvergne). The event in Germany is a cadet World Championship.”

In December she has two events, in Portland the week after Germany and the week after in Virginia Beach.” She will continue competing to reach her Olympic dream.
After she graduates from Northgate, Nishimura hopes to continue fencing while attending a four-year university on the east coast. “I want to study Biomedical Engineering or neuroscience,” added Nishimura.