Catherine “Catt” Gagnon, of Rensselaer, a sophomore at Darrow School in New Lebanon, is now making final preparations to compete in the USA Fencing (USAF) 2015 Junior Olympic Championships to be held in Richmond, VA, February 13 to 16.
Gagnon, who has been fencing since she was 9 years old and is a member of the Beaches Saber Club of Troy, qualified for the Junior Olympics after placing 34th out of 117 competitors in the junior division at the 2014 USAF National Championships in Columbus, Ohio, last summer. She had qualified for the nationals by competing earlier in the year at a tournament held at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie.
“I am very excited. This is a big opportunity for me,” said Gagnon, who has fenced at the college level with students in the RPI Fencing Club in Troy. She has also been invited to compete with the Fencing Club at SUNY Albany. The experience, she said, gave her the confidence to compete in the Olympic qualifier against opponents from across the country at varying skill levels. “I surprised myself,” she said. “I was fencing against opponents with more experience and skill, but I did pretty well.”
Gagnon has also used her fencing experience to complete an independent study program in fencing at Darrow. In addition to the Junior Olympics, she also hopes to compete in the USAF Summer Nationals to be held in San Jose, CA, June 27 to July 6.