Monte Sereno resident Vaishnavi Vijay recently won bronze at the Pan American Youth & Veteran Championships for Team USA in the Pre-Cadet Women’s Épée event. This talented athlete started fencing because she used to watch a TV show as a kid called “Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir,” in which the lead character was a fencer. Her mom put her in a fencing camp and she was hooked.
She has been fencing for four years now. During the school year she’d train for 8-12 hours per week. During the summer she trained up-to 35 hours per week. In July 2024, she finished second in the USA Summer Nationals, in the women’s Y10 category for épée.
Since then, she’s been training diligently. She’d been looking forward to competing in the Pan Am Youth games for years. Her little brother cheered her on. Vijay credits her parents for providing plenty of support, on top of the advice from her coaches and peers. It paid off when she won the bronze medal. She was ecstatic.
She wants to continue fencing at the international level. Vijay wants to give a huge shout-out to her coach Sergei Rassolko, who she says is passionate about seeing her grow as a fencer. She also wants to give credit to her club Maximum Fencing, for supporting her and making fencing fun. Her goal is to become a top senior USA épée fencer. She says she’d love to represent Team USA at the Olympics.
