'I can trust myself': Olympic fencing medal brings confidence for Hamilton's Eleanor Harvey

Eleanor Harvey made history when she stepped onto the podium in Paris.

Winning bronze in individual women's foil — Canada's first Olympic fencing medal — was only the beginning.

Since the 2024 Games, Harvey has medalled in four of the six tournaments she's competed in, and captured Canada's first World Cup gold in the process.

"I think going into the season after (the Olympics) it gave me a lot of confidence in my preparation, in the attitude I want to have in my training and in competition," she said in an interview. 

"And it gave me confidence that my team and I are good enough to beat the best in the world. And we are."

Harvey will look to climb the World Cup podium on home soil for the first time this week when Vancouver hosts the next stop on the tour. The competition runs Thursday through Sunday.

The 30-year-old three-time Olympian remains eager to perform on her sport's biggest stages.

"Even though I won a medal at the Olympics and I won this (World Cup) gold, I still have this feeling of `You have so much more to prove!'" Harvey said. "And I think until that feeling goes away, I definitely have an interest in continuing to compete."

Part of what makes Harvey special is that she doesn't have an internal barrier telling her to stop, said Igor Gantsevich, high performance director at the Canadian Fencing Federation.

"She will go through fire to achieve her dream. And she has," he said. "That type of thing with an athlete, you either have it or you don't. You can't really teach that."

Harvey grew up in Hamilton and fell in love with fencing as soon as she discovered it was a sport.

Getting to the highest level, though, required sacrifices for both the young athlete and her family. Her mom, Lise Graydon, sold her