Kopecky CU's top fencer at NCAAs

After recovering from a fractured skull as a budding gymnast when she was 12, sophomore Lydia Kopecky chose to take up fencing. She did Columbia proud at the 2011 NCAA Championships at Ohio State University, finishing seventh overall in women’s epee and earning second-team All-American honors. She was the Lions’ top finisher at the event.

Before the Chicago native excelled on the strip, she was an elite gymnast. Kopecky got involved in gymnastics when she was three, and competed in several events until she was 13. However, when she was 12, she fractured her skull on the parallel bars. If Kopecky had been able to continue with gymnastics, it’s likely that she would have been a very strong collegiate gymnast. Instead, she has found success in fencing.

“After a year of trying to continue with it, it just wasn’t working. I was reading a lot of fantasy novels at the time and decided that sword fighting would be the best option for me,” Kopecky said. “I researched it and picked it up at a local club in Chicago.”

Her success in both sports wasn’t unrelated. “My muscle memory is one of my strongest things, and gymnastics was all about memorizing movements,” she said. “My timing is probably my best skill in fencing … I am really able to read opponent moves, and I would say that did come from gymnastics.”

While most of her training was at her small local club in Chicago, Kopecky has traveled across Europe competing in World Cup events in six countries. In addition, she graduated from Northside College Prep High School a semester early in order to train in Paris.

During her time in France, Kopecky trained with Daniel Levasseur in a suburb miles outside of Paris. She said of Levasseur, “He is the top coach in the world for my specific weapon, which is a French grip of epee.”

The French coach has instructed some of the top fencing talent in the world, including French epee legend Laura Flessel. Kopecky has been able to preserve an invaluable connection with Levasseur.

“I go back to Paris a lot over breaks and before competitions in Europe, and I’ll train with him again,” she said.

The excitement the coaches and current fencers showed toward her was the difference in Kopecky’s decision to attend Columbia.

“Columbia was simply the best school for the best fencing, and they were the school that seemed the most excited to have me,” she said.

Since coming to college, Kopecky has trained primarily at the New York Athletic Club as well as the Fencers Club. Kopecky sees this as one of the principal advantages Columbia has over some fencing programs.

“I get to fence with fencers from all of the colleges around here, and then I get to train with all of the people who are members of these clubs who are almost all training for the Olympics right now,” she said. “I’m able to improve a lot more than if I had about 10 fencers to fence as opposed to 60.”

Kopecky’s performances fencing have not gone unnoticed, and have drawn praise from her teammates and coaches.

Assistant coach Daria Schneider said of Kopecky’s fencing, “She’s small for an epee fencer, but she uses that to her advantage by being really fast and really agile. She is also a former gymnast, so she is really flexible. She has a really deep lunge, and that gives her more of a reach.”

Freshman Katya English, a teammate of Kopecky’s on the epee squad who finished 18th at NCAAs, praised Kopecky’s character.

“She never gives up,” English said. “No matter the situation, she gives it everything she has and adjusts her fencing. She can always turn things around.”

The NCAA Championships have an extremely intense environment—year in, year out—but Kopecky was not daunted by the occasion.

“To have flags and banners and screaming right next to you [while] you have your coach and one teammate supporting you was so challenging and so hard to keep focused,” Kopecky said. “You saw girls running from strips crying.”

She explained her success by saying, “I was going into every bout not even caring about winning or losing but just knowing that I was going to win the bout. There was so much activity in all my bouts.”

“She was just incredibly focused the entire time,” English added. “It’s very easy at NCAAs to let yourself get mentally tired, but Lydia didn’t do that. She was on her game 100 percent the whole time.”

Kopecky was especially proud of a few of her bouts in Columbus. Against both Northwestern’s Dina Bazarbayeva and Ohio State’s Caroline Piasecka, two fencers she normally struggles against, Kopecky won 5-0. She also narrowly lost to eventual epee champion Courtney Hurley of Notre Dame in a dramatic 5-4 bout.

NCAAs were another feather in the cap of a strong 2011 campaign for the sophomore. She had an impressive international result in France in January, placed third at NCAA Northeast Regionals, and earned second-team all-Ivy honors as well.

In addition to her personal success, Kopecky has also embraced a leadership role on this extremely young squad, which featured 16 rookies.

“I think she’s really stepped up to be a leader on our team,” Schneider said. “She has really taken the opportunity to be there as a stable force fencing-wise for the team.”

Her freshman teammate, English, agrees with Schneider.

“She’s an incredibly driven fencer and she brings that out in the people around her,” she said. “She is a really supportive person who will always push you.”

At the St. John’s Invitational, which featured all the best fencing schools in the country, Kopecky triumphed against many talented fencers and pushed the epee squad to perform its best. At the U.S. Collegiate Fencing Squad Championships, she helped the epee squad to a gold medal.

Those who know Lydia Kopecky would be stunned if she didn’t continue to improve over the next two seasons. Besides her focus, competitiveness and intensity, head coach George Kolombatovich highlighted her willingness to learn.

“She is like a sponge as far as learning,” he said.

Schneider has high hopes for her friend, and former teammate.

“I definitely think she can be first-team All-American,” Schneider said. When asked about Kopecky possibly qualifying for a senior national or Olympic team, Schneider added, “I think whatever she would want to do and focus on, she would be able to accomplish.”