This Week Newspapers Photo

Fifteen-year-old Taylor McIntyre, who began fencing after seeing a demonstration at Easton Town Center by Julia Richey, won her division in the Division II Summer National Championships fencing tournament in July in Grapevine, Texas.

McIntyre, in an interview with This Week Newspapers:

McIntyre’s first impression of the sport was a bad one.

“When I walked in for my first class, coach gave me my equipment and told me to jump in and try it,” Taylor McIntyre said. “I was only 10 and it was kind of intimidating because I was going up against older guys who were attacking me. I got creamed the first few times I tried it.”

But McIntyre adapted to the sport and began improving at a rapid pace. Just six months after picking up a foil for the first time, she won the Ohio State University 10-and-Under open youth tournament on Nov. 20, 2004.

Richey told the paper:

“This is a huge accomplishment because this is the largest and strongest fencing event in the country and Taylor is the first woman from Ohio to win it,” said Julia Richey, a former member of the Russian national fencing team who coaches McIntyre at Royal Arts Fencing Academy in New Albany. “She’s the first woman from Ohio to ever win a national championship. She’s only 15 years old and she beat adults to win it.”

At the Arnold Sports Festival
Arnold Fencing Classic