Canadian fencer Eleanor Harvey has entered uncharted territory.
Harvey became the first Canadian ever to win an Olympic fencing medal on Sunday when she captured bronze with a 15-12 win over reigning world champion Alice Volpi of Italy in women’s foil competition.
The Italian fought back from a 10-4 deficit, but Harvey rebounded to win Canada’s second medal of the Olympics.
Harvey lost 15-9 to American Lauren Scruggs in the semifinals, sending her to the bronze-medal bout.
Harvey advanced to the semifinals with a 15-14 upset of No. 4 seed Martina Favaretto of Italy.
The Hamilton, Ont., native, seeded 12th, rallied from an 8-2 deficit in the second period for her third win of the competition in the quarterfinals.
Harvey is competing in her third Olympics. Her best previous showing was a quarterfinal appearance in 2016 in Rio, previously Canada’s best individual result in the sport.
Harvey said before the delayed 2020 Olympics in 2021 that she was retiring after Tokyo, per Scott Radley of the Hamilton Spectator, but then decided to take another shot.
Canada has made noise in the first two days of fencing competition in Paris.
On Saturday, Fares Arfa beat three-time reigning Olympic champ Aron Szilagyi of Hungary in a run to the quarterfinals.
