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Newsletter By Dan Plouffe, Jackson Starr, Martin Cleary & Kaitlyn LeBoutillier
Trinity Lowthian took down the world’s #2 and #3-ranked women’s epée category B wheelchair fencers today in Paris before a single-touch overtime loss ended her quest for an improbable podium performance at the 2024 Paralympic Games.
Just two years into her fencing career, the 22-year-old from Stittsville wrote a piece of Canadian history in the process with her fifth-place finish.
“This is the best-ever para fencing result in the history Canadian fencing, so Trinity’s very proud of that,” Lowthian’s Ottawa Fencing/Team Canada coach Paul ApSmion signalled in an interview with Ottawa Sports Pages reporter Dan Plouffe. “She really demonstrated that she belongs in the top echelon of her category. It was an absolutely incredible day.”
With “a really rough draw,” as ApSimon described it, Lowthian’s path to her fifth-place position couldn’t have been any more daunting. The world’s #8-ranked epée fencer in her class, Lowthian was first matched up against Ukraine’s Olena Fedota-Isaieva, who was ranked lower at #9 due to a break from international competition after medalling at the Tokyo Games.
Fedota-Isaieva beat Lowthian 15-9 in their opening table of 16 bout en route to an eventual bronze medal win, her second of the Games.
That sent Lowthian into the repechage draw for her chance to win her way back up to the bronze medal bout.
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Her first adversary came in the form of South Korea’s Eun Hey Cho. Cho presented a formidable challenge as the world #3, but Lowthian had a secret strategy in her back pocket.
Prior to each bout, the fencers have their wheelchairs latched to the ground, and Lowthian chose to position herself farther back than the minimum allowed – an unconventional approach.
“It just threw the Korean way off,” ApSimon recounted. “She was like, ‘What? Nobody does that.’ Even the referee asked Trinity if she was sure: ‘You sure you want to do this?'”
Despite being shorter than most of her opponents, Lowthian has “one of the longest attacks in the world,” her coach noted.
“She’s super flexible and she’s got a really long, long reach,” explained the past Canadian Olympic women’s foil team coach. “The idea is that it will be hard for Trinity to get a hit, but that it’s gonna be even harder for her opponent to get a hit, and that’s what we want.
“In the end, the Korean was just really confused. It threw her way off and then she never recovered from just setting the distance.”
It was a strategy the Ottawa Fencing pair had developed in recent months, and they implemented it again versus the #2-ranked Italian in the next round. Lowthian had never before beaten Pasquino, who’d trounced her 15-2 in their last encounter, but the rookie Canadian took her down 15-13 on the biggest stage.
“That really pissed her off,” ApSimon said of the unexpected distance gap. “But it was a great battle. Pasquino never found her moments, because Trinity didn’t give her the space.”
Down the last four fencers competing for bronze, Lowthian faced fifth-ranked Nga Ting Tong of Hong Kong next. It was 3-0 for the University of Ottawa student early, but that turned out to be the biggest lead either competitor would hold in the bout.
Down 8-7 half way through, Tong ratcheted up the pace of attacks and pulled ahead 14-13, with all points scored within 36 seconds. Lowthian evened it up 14-14 to force a deciding hit, which was ultimately settled in an overtime period, with the South Korean taking the victory.
“Tong pulled out an action she hadn’t done in the match and it surprised everyone. That was a brave moment for her to pull it out, but those that take risks oftentimes get the rewards,” ApSimon indicated, noting that Lowthian tightened up a bit as she stared down the opportunity to fence for bronze.
“She had the right actions, but the tension didn’t allow her to get her arm out fast enough in the right moment,” he added. “I think at the beginning of the day, if you’d told her that she’d be fifth and she was gonna defeat Cho and Pasquino, she would have signed the contract.
“She was disappointed for not fencing in the medal round by like a fraction of the second, but then she was like, ‘OK, life goes on,’ and she’s very proud of her achievements.”
Lowthian had shown some solid Paris potential with a fifth-place result at a July World Cup event in Poland. But then the autoimmune autonomic neuropathy patient had to have an operation in mid-July to have her gastrostomy tube placed, which brings nutrition directly to her stomach.
“We didn’t even get back to real training until early August, so it was touch-and-go,” recalled ApSimon, who was pleased to get some solid training in the week before the Games. “I was unsure where it would go, and of course, she hasn’t done much volume at all, so fatigue showed a little bit near the end.”
Rewind a bit farther, and Lowthian’s journey from the basement gym at St. Paul University to the Grand Palais in Paris is all the more remarkable.
Lowthian, who spent most of her high school years in hospital, only took up wheelchair fencing two years ago once her health allowed.
The past water polo player and biathlete started competing internationally practically from the get-go in order to get on the Paris qualification path, all the while still working to determine which weapon to focus on.
The epée proved to be the answer, although she earned her Paris berth in sabre, and opened her Paralympics by “playing around” with the sabre and losing her two bouts 15-8 and 15-4 on Tuesday.
ApSimon called Lowthian “incredible”, a “fighter”, and a “role model.”
“When we started, neither of us knew much,” reflected the Ottawa Sports Awards coaching lifetime achievement honouree, who went to France for a wheelchair fencing master training course since he’d rarely before coached on the para side of the sport.
“You know, we learned together, and that’s been a great journey,” he added. “It was just great to see her perform today.”
Host broadcasters should be ashamed for missing big live moments
Although Louis XVI was beheaded just steps from the fencing venue, we’ll say – in more modern, less extreme language – “down with the heads” of the host broadcasters who are in charge of delivering livestreams of the wheelchair fencing competition.
As her supporters who weren’t in Paris would surely agree, trying to follow Lowthian’s progress from back home was an exceptionally frustrating endeavour. Athletes have put in so much time and dedication to reach the Paralympic stage and it’s such a shame that most people don’t get to see that big moment.
Lowthian’s first bout in the repechage draw was the feature match of the livestream and it was fantastic to feel the drama and see what she can do against the world’s best. But her later bouts were not lucky enough to be the ones shown on the feed.
Now, you could certainly make a case that every piste should have its own camera and stream (like you might find for U.S. Open tennis) – after all, this is the sport’s pinnacle stage.
But even if you decide that’s not worth it and you need to focus on just one of the many bouts occurring simultaneously, how about you take a page from a curling broadcast and have updates during the key moments of other bouts, if the action in the main bout isn’t as critical?
Dive one bar lower and you could at the very least move on to show another bout if the feature matchup ends before the others do.
Instead, the broadcasters preferred to place their extra camera at a pigeon eye’s view of the full facility. It was a bit like watching the Super Bowl coin toss from the back row of the stadium. But at least it was something. You could still kind of make out the reactions and hear the crowd cheer.
There couldn’t have been a more dramatic moment than Lowthian’s last bout, tied 14-14, next touch wins. And then what happens? “Well, that concludes our coverage of this session.” And the stream goes dark.
This is 2024 – fans, and the Paralympians themselves, deserve much better. The IPC’s broadcast leaders may have ancient standards, but they are surely thankful the swords used next to Place de la Révolution aren’t as sharp these days as they were in 1793.
Brianna Hennessy sails through heats into Saturday’s para canoe final
Brianna Hennessy won her heat in her signature canoe event and was fourth in her kayak heat as she got her second Paralympics underway in style with a pair of women’s 200-metre races today in Paris.
In her VL2 va’a canoe heat, Hennessy blasted out front from the first strokes and held her advantage all the way to the finish to secure the lone direct qualification position in Saturday morning’s A final.
The 39-year-old’s time of 1:02.64 was more than one second better than her nearest challenger, Great Britain’s Jeanette Chippington.
Reigning world champion Emma Riggs won the other heat, while the rest of the field will have to first race in the semi-finals tomorrow to earn a spot in the final.
Hennessy also placed fourth in her KL1 kayak heat in 59.02, finishing over three seconds off the winning pace of Chile’s Katherinne Wollermann. She’ll have another chance to qualify for the A final through Sunday’s semis.
“It’s good to get the (first two races) out of the way and get those initial nerves out of the way,” the Ottawa River Canoe Club paddler said via the Canadian Paralympic Committee. “We executed everything to game plan today, so I think coach is really happy.”
Hennessy, who made her Paralympic debut in Tokyo less than a year after taking up the sport, has earned canoe silver medals at three consecutive World Championships, and will now have the chance to add her first Paralympic medal to the collection tomorrow.
“It’s just incredible to have my family here with me this time, just like a heartbeat from back home, and just the Canadian fans standing behind us this time – I think that’s going to totally propel us in the finals tomorrow,” she added.
Ottawa Paralympians in action on September 7:
‘Routine, ritual & ridiculousness’ are the keys to Brianna Hennessy’s Paralympic podium pursuits
Three years ago in Tokyo, Brianna Hennessy found herself on the start line of a Paralympic final, and though she was just one year into her paddling career, she laid down a remarkable performance, finishing fifth and just over one second away from the podium.
Hennessy had a lifetime’s worth of sport experience to draw on in that big moment – she was a champion boxer, hockey, rugby and ball hockey player earlier in career, and then played wheelchair rugby as she entered the para sport world.
The 39-year-old Ottawa River Canoe Club athlete will be back in a Paralympic canoe final Saturday morning, this time armed with a bunch more paddling experience, plus three consecutive World Championships silver medals in the discipline.
Physical preparation is fundamental to podium performances of course, but many aspects of psychological development are crucial to excel in high-pressure situations like a championship final, Hennessy underlined in a pre-Games interview with Ottawa Sports Pages reporter Jackson Starr.
“I’m a big advocate for mental health, and as much as we go through all this physical training, there’s the mental aspect of sport and mental performance as well,” highlighted the Gloucester High School and University of Ottawa grad. “When you come down to those moments where there’s all these uncontrollables, you try to focus on the controllables, try to calm yourself and conserve your energy.
“For me, there are three ‘Rs’: routine, ritual and ridiculousness. The ridiculousness side is: if anyone knows me outside of sport, I’m this class clown that’s super bubbly, that’s always laughing, making jokes and super extroverted. But then when it’s game time, it’s a whole different side of me. I’m super intense.
“Part of my routine is just getting dressed or laying out my outfits, reading some things that I wrote, some words of affirmation to calm me down and just to make sure that I believe in myself, and that my confidence levels are up.
“My ritual, part of that is I always light a candle the night before my events to summon Fujian, the Wind God, and to ask him for his help to give me my wind. That’s something that I do as my ritual every time, and then I just chill. I have a candle lit there, I listen to my music and meditation music, just to chill out and to calm my heartbeat.”
The A final of the VL2 va’a canoe women’s 200 m competition starts Saturday at 5:52 a.m. ET.
Also in action tomorrow will be a couple athletes from the larger national capital region, who will take their final shot at the podium.
Carleton Place’s Anne Fergusson and Pembroke’s Jolan Wong will be playing for Team Canada in the women’s sitting volleyball bronze medal match at 9 a.m. ET.
Their opponent will be Brazil, which beat them 25-20, 25-21, 23-25, 25-19 in the preliminary round.
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