Canada has chance to win first-ever Olympic fencing medal today
Canadians will be tuning in closely to the Olympic women’s foil fencing bronze medal match later on today.
Canada has a chance to secure its first-ever Olympic medal in the sport after Eleanor Harvey defeated Italy’s Martina Favaretto in the women’s foil quarterfinal this morning and then fell to American Lauren Scruggs in the semi-final.
Harvey will now compete for a bronze medal against the fourth-ranked Alice Volpi of Italy.
An Olympic medal for Eleanor Harvey would be monumental for Canadian fencing.
Her first senior-level medal at an international Games came nine years ago at the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games, gold in the women's team foil event.
A 3-time Olympian, she has 5 Pan Am Games medals. pic.twitter.com/9navoustg3
— Ben Steiner (@BenSteiner00) July 28, 2024
Fencing has proven to be quite an exciting event for Canadian Olympic fans. The Canadian team also had another fencer on the men’s side turn some heads as well with Fares Arfa knocking off three-time Olympic champion Aron Szilagyi of Hungary in the table of 32.
Arfa eventually bowed out in the quarterfinals after losing to Oh Sang-uk of South Korea.
Harvey is ranked 14th in the world in foil by the International Fencing Federation. Her quarterfinal opponent, Favaretto, was ranked third in the world. The semi-final against Scruggs was a nail-biter, but the Canadian eventually fell 15-9.
This is by far Harvey’s best result at an Olympic Games after finishing seventh at the Rio 2016 Olympics and 16th in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
A medal will be anything but guaranteed for Harvey with her bout against Volpi scheduled to go at 2:50 pm ET/11:50 am PT.
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