Eleanor Harvey has change into Canada’s first ever Olympic medallist in fencing.

The 29-year-old gained the bronze medal within the ladies’s particular person foil occasion on Day 2 of Paris 2024, defeating Italy’s Alice Volpi 15-12 within the third-place match. Volpi is the fourth-ranked ladies’s foil fencer on the planet, whereas Harvey got here into the Video games ranked 14th.

However Harvey carried a successful report in opposition to Volpi into the bout, having gained 4 of their earlier seven conferences, together with the newest in Might 2022.

Coming off her 15-9 loss within the semifinal to American Lauren Scruggs, Harvey went on the assault as quickly because the sign was given to start out. She was up 3-0 earlier than Volpi might put a degree on a board. She quickly made it 6-1 after which after Volpi closed the hole somewhat, Harvey went up 8-3 with a minute to go within the opening of three 3-minute rounds.

Regardless of how a lot Volpi tried to discover a well past Harvey’s defence, the Canadian was not giving approach and took a 9-4 lead into the primary break, leaving her simply six factors away from the 15 wanted for the victory.

Harvey began the second spherical simply as she did the primary, with a fast level simply seconds in. With Harvey up 12-10 and simply over a minute gone within the spherical, Volpi took a medical timeout after showing to endure a cramp. When the motion resumed, Harvey might see the bronze medal in her sights. She went up 13-10, then 14-11, leaving Harvey one hit away from the win. The closest Volpi might make it was 14-12 earlier than Harvey received the fifteenth level she wanted to place her identify within the Canadian historical past books.

In her Olympic debut at Rio 2016, Harvey achieved Canada’s earlier greatest ever Olympic lead to any particular person fencing occasion when she positioned seventh within the ladies’s particular person foil, making it so far as the quarterfinals after defeating the world primary.