By Justin Feil, Special Writer
Even when Katharine Holmes hasn’t been fencing, she has found a way to apply the sport that she loves to her job.
Since taking off from Princeton University the last two years to focus on making the United States team, she has been working as a research assistant with Dr. Yael Niv at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute.
“We do computational modeling of human decision-making,” Holmes said. “The main thing I study is human decision-making and risk-taking, and how humans deal with it. It’s pretty relatable.”
On the fencing strip, decision-making and risk-taking are integral parts of a fencer’s success, and when Holmes returns to school, she expects to focus her thesis studies on creating a virtual reality game that can assess the success of different decision-making strategies in fencing.
Holmes’ decision to put her final year of studies at Princeton on hold after her junior spring in 2014 paid off when she became the first athlete connected to Princeton University to make this year’s Olympic team. Holmes was named to the team in April after a year of competition.
“I didn’t know I was the first Princeton athlete to qualify,” Holmes said. “Fencing has one of the longest qualifying periods. We started last April then finished in April. I qualified earlier when I made it mathematically impossible for someone to pass me. I knew going into that match what I had to do.
“That release of pressure and tension, I was crying and laughing when I made it. All the emotions were exploding at once.”
Holmes, who goes by Kat, has remained close to the Tigers program that helped her develop after high school. She won bronze at the NCAA championships freshman year, then helped Princeton to its first overall team title as a sophomore. She has been a volunteer assistant since taking time off from school, which has afforded her the chance to still train with the team under the tutelage of head coach Zoltan Dudas. She offers pointers to less experienced fencers at competitions and keeps active with the team.
“It’s pretty much the same capacity as a team captain,” Holmes said. “I help run practices and travel to meets and help coach them.”
Holmes comes out of a Princeton program renowned for its ability to produce Olympic fencers. Holmes will be joined on the Olympic team by twin sisters Courtney Hurley and Kelley Hurley, Notre Dame graduates who fenced on the 2012 U.S. Olympic team in London with Princeton University products Susie Scanlan and Maya Lawrence.
“Princeton has a historically strong team,” Holmes said. “We’ve always pushed each other. Two from 2012 were from Princeton. We’ve been vying for the same thing. It’s great to have that tradition of excellence to spring from. The team is like your second family. They’ll always have your back and you can come back to them no matter what happens.”
Holmes is following a plan that she was laying out in her mind even before she came to college. When she was making her decision where to fence, she told coaches of her intention to prepare for the Olympics and take time away from competing for her school.
“Different coaches responded in different ways,” Holmes said. “Zoltan said if you come here, I’ll help you. It was formalized into a solid plan (to take two years away from school) when I made my first senior team in 2013. It wasn’t just a dream then.”
Holmes gave herself every opportunity to immerse in training and preparing for the Olympics by taking time off from school. She dived into the change and it has benefited her.
“You’re looking at fencing as a lifestyle,” she said, “living and breathing it and not just leaving it in the gym.”
Holmes has never put such a concentrated effort into her fencing as she has over the last two years. Her devotion has her stronger, quicker and her focused study of the epee field has her feeling confident.
“I’ve never felt so prepared,” she said.
Scanlan and Lawrence helped to open eyes when they combined with the Hurley sisters to win bronze in the team event, and this year’s epee team already has won two bronze medals at World Cup events. They have been fencing together largely since the 2012 Games ended. Holmes is looking forward to her chance to contribute to the team and fence as an individual as well.
“Particularly in my event, women’s epee, pretty much anybody can win on any given day,” Holmes said. “It’s not like track or swimming, if you have the best time, you’re going to win. It’s going to come down to who is the most focused. I’ve never felt so focused for one event. I’ll do everything in my power I can do that that will give me the confidence to get through the day.”
Holmes currently sits 25th in the world in women’s epee rankings. She has been preparing mentally and physically to reach her goal of medaling, not just looking at the Olympics as a chance to gain experience, but to compete for one of the top three spots.
“Fencing is big experience sport,” said Holmes, who recently turned 23. “The majority of top fencers are in their late 20s. I don’t have a lot of pressure on me going into the Games. Everyone else has more pressure on them which makes me freer to play my game.”
Holmes doesn’t need any extra pressure. Going to the Olympics is already special, the result of years of hard work and the culmination of competing at so many prior meets.
“It is way bigger,” Holmes said. “For fencing we don’t get a lot of coverage and now we’re getting a lot of coverage. It’s the Olympics. There’s nothing like it. The mentality is, it’s still fencing, you’re fencing the same people, it’s the same structure. If you go in like it’s the event of events, you’re going to freeze.”
Holmes has continued to train in Princeton as well as in New York since clinching a spot on the Olympic team. On Sunday, she joined the rest of the Olympic fencing team in Houston to continue preparation.
“I’ve mainly trained how I trained before to make the team,” Holmes said. “We’ve had a few more raining camps. Now that we’re three weeks out, we’re really pulling together and training together. We still had a couple tournaments before so we were training for that.
“It’s just different now,” she added. “At Princeton, I train alone for a good portion of the day. Here I train with people. There’s more emphasis on fencing and bouting because we have more people to fence. We’re not doing any conditioning now since it’s only three weeks out.”
Fencing competition starts up quickly at the Olympics. The day after Opening Ceremonies, fencing competition begins.
“I’m more excited to anything,” Holmes said. “There’s no point to getting nervous. I would be nervous if I wasn’t practicing or preparing. If I really truly feel I’ve done everything I can, there’s no reason to be nervous. I’m looking forward to it more than anything else.”
