Saudi fencer, 9, dreams of Olympic saber gold

RIYADH: Nine-year-old Ghasaq Alqahtani discovered fencing by watching her older sister train at home, sparking a passion that has taken the young Saudi Arabia athlete to competitions in Europe and the Gulf.

“I started when I was 5 years old ... My mom used to train my sister and I used to watch them. I wanted to give it a try,” Alqahtani told Arab News. “My mother is a retired athlete, which pushed me and my siblings to do sports.”

She first picked up a foil, one of fencing’s three disciplines, before coaches recognized that her speed made her better suited to saber.

Unlike foil, where touches are limited to the torso, saber allows fencers to score above the waist using both the edge and the tip of the blade, making it the fastest of fencing’s three disciplines.

“When I tried (fencing), I fell in love because I like how disciplined it was … how they pushed you to train hard and how fast it was.”

Alqahtani, who is a year five student at King’s College Riyadh, recalled seeing her sister, Antonia Carolina, win national titles before going on to compete in Junior World Cup events, convinced that she wanted to follow the same path.

“The thing that inspired me was that my sister actually trained very hard,” she said. “And she actually won first place all over Saudi Arabia in 2023. And in 2024, she started to play in Junior World Cup, which got me amazed (and) I thought I could end up like her.”

That determination has already taken Alqahtani to competitions in the UK, Turkiye, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Bahrain.

Competing overseas has raised the standard she sets for herself. “The level of fencing (abroad) is very competitive. The number of athletes exceeded 100 in almost each category that I played,” she said.

“I