{"id":22201,"date":"2024-07-01T01:19:10","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T05:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multi.nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/?p=22201"},"modified":"2025-02-13T09:40:28","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T14:40:28","slug":"brooklyn-fencer-qualifies-for-paris-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/brooklyn-fencer-qualifies-for-paris-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Fencer Qualifies for Paris Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Megan McGibney<\/a><\/p>\n

The Paris Summer Olympics begins\u00a0in July\u00a0– and one of Brooklyn’s own will compete there!<\/p>\n

Bensonhurst native\u00a0Anne Cebula<\/a>\u00a0is a first-time U.S. Olympic Fencing team member. The rising senior at Barnard College has been dreaming of this moment since she first saw a fencing match on TV at age 10.<\/p>\n

“I was watching it during the 2008 Olympics,” she said. “I was enraptured. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.”<\/p>\n

Cebula\u00a0<\/a>knew then she wanted to fence. But when her parents felt the training and clubs were too expensive, she\u00a0put her dreams aside for the time being.<\/p>\n

However, her fencing dreams reawakened when she chose to attend Brooklyn Technical High School\u00a0because the school has\u00a0a fencing\u00a0team.<\/a><\/p>\n

Cebula said she did not pick up a blade until close to\u00a0the end of her first year. Instead, her coach, Bert Yaged, had 50 students exercise by running up and down the school’s eight staircases\u00a0to work up aerobic strength. By the time\u00a0Yaged opened the equipment closet that May, only 10 students remained.<\/p>\n

“Fencing is an aerobic activity,” Yaged said. “There is the footwork and the lunge capacity. Your legs have to be strong and you have to be aerobically fit. It’s a tough sport to learn, but once you learn it’s fun.”<\/p>\n

In fencing,\u00a0there are three disciplines: foil, epee, and saber. Yaged\u00a0gave Cebula the epee blade, the biggest and heaviest, because of her height (she’s 5’10”).<\/p>\n

Soon she was competing in city\u00a0tournaments and became\u00a0the NYC PSAL Girls Epee Individual Champion in 2016. In her senior year of high school, Cebula\u00a0became team captain.<\/p>\n

Although the pandemic, like other athletes, put a pause in her training, she fenced at Barnard College and then began\u00a0competing internationally in countries like Hungary and Russia. Competing in the latter placed her on the Olympic team, she said.<\/p>\n

“I held onto that moment in 2008,” Cebula smiled. “Passion can override a lot.”<\/p>\n

As Cebula prepares for the Olympics, she wants to be careful\u00a0not to\u00a0overtrain, though she admits it is tempting.<\/p>\n

As her competition starts the day after the Opening Ceremonies, Cebula said she looks forward to winning a medal\u00a0with the U.S. fencing team.<\/p>\n

“Anne Cebula’s remarkable journey from Brooklyn Tech\u2019s epee captain to representing the USA at the Olympics is a testament to her dedication and talent,” said Courtney Ulrich, executive director of the Brooklyn Tech Alumni Foundation. “The entire Brooklyn Tech alumni community is immensely proud to see her achieve such extraordinary heights, and we are excited to cheer her on as she competes on the world stage in Paris this summer.”<\/p>\n

Yaged\u00a0said he is proud of his former student, and pointed out that most Olympic-level fencers start training at\u00a0five or six years old, while Cebula\u00a0began\u00a0ten years later.<\/p>\n

Although Cebula said she will\u00a0retire from fencing after the Olympics,\u00a0she\u00a0is\u00a0elated\u00a0to fulfill her childhood dream.<\/p>\n

“Passion will take you so far,” she said. “You have to go in loving the sport. Be okay with either outcome, one step at a time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Megan McGibney The Paris Summer Olympics begins\u00a0in July\u00a0– and one of Brooklyn’s own will compete there! Bensonhurst native\u00a0Anne Cebula\u00a0is a first-time U.S. Olympic Fencing team member. The rising senior at Barnard College has been dreaming of this moment since she first saw a fencing match on TV at age 10. “I was watching it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5904,"featured_media":22202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-whats-buzzin"],"yoast_head":"\nBrooklyn Fencer Qualifies for Paris Olympics - Brooklyn News and Events<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/brooklyn-fencer-qualifies-for-paris-olympics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brooklyn Fencer Qualifies for Paris Olympics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By: Megan McGibney The Paris Summer Olympics begins\u00a0in July\u00a0– and one of Brooklyn’s own will compete there! 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