Meet Eleanor Harvey, Kelleigh Ryan, and Alanna Goldie (Left to Right)
These three made up 3/4 of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Women's Foil team.
Haven't heard of this team? This is the highest ranked Canadian fencing squad for the last 10 years and these three made up the back bone of it for the entirety of that time. Kelleigh and Alanna have since retired but their legacy lives on through Eleanor and the next generation who are preparing for the Paris Olympics with their sights on achieving more historic moments for Team Canada.
Epic Fencing is lucky to have Eleanor continuing to train with us, Kelleigh coaching and running the admin, and Alanna joining the Board of Directors.
Some key moments in our Epic Olympians' history:
- In 2008, Alanna was the youngest Canadian to qualify for U17 and U20 World Championships at age 13
- In 2011, Kelleigh and Alanna were a part of the first Women's Foil team to make it to the quarter finals of the Senior World Championships. A result that was followed by numerous top 8 results. The team that was ranked 12th in 2011 moved all the way up to 5th by 2022.
- In 2014 and 2015, Eleanor made history by winning back-to-back silver medals at U20 World Championships. She and Alanna were ranked #1 and 2 in the season that year!
- In 2015, the three Epic women won gold at the Pan Am Games, with a home crowd cheering them on in Toronto, ON (see photo above!)
- In 2016, Eleanor became the "double whammy of goodness" girl by qualifying for the Olympics AND winning NCAAs on the same weekend. Later that year, she topped this up by achieving Canada's best result at the Olympics, defeating world #1, and finishing 7th!
- In 2017, Alanna won her 4th consecutive NCAA medal, a feat not many fencers have achieved!
- In 2018, Eleanor became the first women's foilist to win a Senior World Cup Medal. She has since gone on to win 4 more Senior World Cup medals between 2022 and 2023, since working with coach Alex. She moved up the ranks to #3 in the world!
- In 2019, Kelleigh won her 4th Pan Am Championships individual medal.
- In 2021, Kelleigh defeated two top 16 fencers to make the quarter finals of the Tokyo Olympics, and now holds the second best Canadian Olympic fencing result. In the team event, the women showed their resilience and teamsmanship by finishing 5th.
- In 2022, Kelleigh defeated the reigning world champion to achieve her first World Cup top 8, this result moved her to 9th in the World, a lifelong goal she had worked towards.
- In 2022, Kelleigh and Eleanor were on the team that defeated the USA at Pan Am Championships. Canada had been silver medalists at this competition for 12 years in a row prior! In 2023, Eleanor was on the team that followed this up with a second consecutive Pan Am Championships Gold! That weekend, Eleanor also won the individual event, finally defeating the reigning champion of 10 years.
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