While all eyes are on Sochi and the upcoming Winter Olympics, one 麻豆传媒映画student is quietly working toward a medal at the Summer Olympics in 2016.
In many ways Dylan French is like any other Grade 11 student at Vancouver鈥檚 Magee secondary. He is happy to be earning his driver's licence, likes to listen to Led Zeppelin on his iPod and can鈥檛 wait to graduate.
But unlike his classmates, Dylan is a world class fencing champion with a list of awards for competitive fencing almost as long as the foils he wields. 聽
He is the provincial senior champion in epee and foil, has won 14 Canadian National medals, two American National Medals, and finished 13th at the cadet world championships, held in Croatia last April.
There are three kinds of weapons in fencing: foil, where the target is the torso, epee: where the target is the whole body, and sabre, where the target is the upper body.
Dylan is the only person in Canada who competes successfully in both foil and epee, and in both cadet (under 17 years old) and junior (under 20) levels, according to his coach, Victor Gantsevich, provincial coach and founder of the Dynamo Fencing Club in Richmond where Dylan trains.
Thanks to Magee鈥檚 SpArts (the word is a combination of sports and arts) 鈥� a special program for elite athletes and artists 鈥� Dylan attends classes part-time while training 26 to 35 hours per week. The program also enables him to take time off school to travel for competitions while completing his full course load.
So far, he has travelled to competitions across Canada and the U.S., and to multiple countries overseas including Russia, Slovakia and England. While his coach thinks Dylan will be ready for the Olympics by 2016, Dylan and his dad, John French, are hedging their bets and aiming for the 2020 Games in Tokyo.
Either way, there is a lot of training and competing in Dylan鈥檚 future between now and the podium.
Dylan admitted sometimes the pressure of such high level competition gets to him.
鈥淚 still enjoy them and I enjoy travelling, but I get really stressed,鈥� he said.
To cope with the jitters he has developed a pre-bout routine of listening to classic rock while he warms up.
鈥淚 am pretty used to it and I manage fine, he said. 聽
Indeed, though only 16 years old, Dylan has almost a decade of fencing behind him. His interest was sparked at age six when a fencer came to his kindergarten class to demonstrate the sport.聽 聽
鈥淓very kid wants to try sword fighting,鈥� he said.
But not every kid is as determined as Dylan. He said though several friends were also interested in the sport, most quickly lost interest.
Dylan鈥檚 father remembers his son as a serious and focused child who didn鈥檛 just like fencing, he embraced the folklore around it.
鈥淗e loved knights, dragons and sword fighting, and was an obsessive reader,鈥� French told the Courier by email.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy is one of Dylan鈥檚 favourites.
Though he participated in a variety of other sports, the love of fencing won out over all others.
鈥淚 enjoyed it. I was good at it and so I stuck with it,鈥� he said.
Gantsevich said Dylan has evolved into an elite competitor, especially for a Canadian fencer. He said most athletes from Canada become 鈥渢ourists鈥� when they go into competition.
鈥淭hey give too much respect to the opponents,鈥� he said.
Dylan has the unique combination of being an excellent listener, understanding with just a word what his coach wants in the heat of a tournament, and at the same time has an uncanny aggressiveness on the mat that takes his opponents by surprise and leads to victory, he said.
Dylan鈥檚 next competition is at the 2014 Cadet/Junior Pan American Championships in Guatemala City next month where Gantsevich expects to him place first or second.
