Watch above: Fencing may not be the most common sport in Saskatchewan, however two local fencers are hard at work trying to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics. Carly Dionne Robinson reports.
SASKATOON – The competition is heated for international fencers, as those aspiring to represent their country at the 2016 Rio Olympics begin their yearlong qualifications. Here in Saskatchewan, Lelan Guillemin and Shannon Comerford recently confirmed their position on Canada’s national fencing team.
It is only the second time that Saskatchewan has two athletes to be participating in these qualification events.
“Being here at this stage right now is kind of surreal,” says Comerford, who has been fencing since the age of eight.
“This is the moment I’ve been waiting for, to have the opportunity to qualify for the Olympics.”
Comerford is a foil fencer and her senior national team has won silver medals at the Pan Am Championships every year since 2009. Unfortunately there will be no team foil fencing at the Rio Olympics, with one team event being excluded every four years.
As an épée fencer, Guillemin is giving everything he has to be able to represent Canada at the Olympics. He started fencing at the age of 17 and had his sights set at being a top fencer for some time.
“I didn’t even really know what fencing was when I first started. Once I got committed, I watched the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and I was set on it, I wanted that. I don’t want to just go, I want to win it.”
Both Comerford and Guillemin had similar Olympic goals for London 2012; however, injuries kept them from qualifying.
In 2010, Guillemin was diagnosed with a rare eye disease called Keratoconus, which left him legally blind.
“I had just committed to trying to make the Olympics, and then all of a sudden you know what, you might go blind you may lose your vision. Like legally not able to drive or anything like that. It was tough, it was brutal.”
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However, thanks to an experimental retina surgery and some heavy duty contact lenses he is able to keep going with the sport he loves.
Guillemin and Comerford travel to competitions around the world and always have a full cheer section no matter if their family is there in person or watching live streams back home in Canada in the middle of the night.
“Well when I think about this, he doesn’t deserve this,” explains Leland`s mother Jo-Anne Guillemin.
“This is something you need to earn and I will tell you he has worked so hard for the spot that he is in right now.”
There is a whole community of fencers also longing for these athletes’ success. They both train out of the Salle Senguin Fencing club, filled with other fencers supporting them like family.
“This club, everybody is there for each other.” Says Comerford.
“And we just strive to make each other better always.”
These fencers leave for the Pan Am Championships in Chile on April 16. How they score at every international event between now and March 31, 2016 will determine if their Olympic dreams become a reality.
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