She tried a number of sports, including dancing and taekwondo, before finding fencing. But then my mother still wanted me to dance and in between she made me do ice skating. I liked it, but I was not so good at it. And then my father stepped in and said, 'Why don't you try fencing? He was involved in artistic gymnastics when he was younger, but switched sports after watching Japanese fencer Yuki Ota win a silver medal in individual foil at the Olympic Games in Beijing.
He started out in foil before changing to epee while he was in high school after winning an epee tournament. She began fencing at age six after watching her father fence at a local competition.
She and her brother and sister followed their father, Steve Kiefer, into the sport. He hadn't picked up a foil in 10 or 15 years, and me and my siblings watched him compete at a local tournament. Then he asked if we wanted to try it, and we said yes.
Twenty years later I'm still doing it. All the basketball classes were suspended during the long holidays when I was probably in primary four. My father asked if I would be interested in taking a fencing course so that I could get some exercise and kill some time during the break.
I thought about it for a while before saying yes. He first tried fencing while he was in primary school. He was encouraged by his older brother. His parents initially did not want him to get involved in the sport but they were persuaded to let him pursue it after coach Park Jong-Han identified his talent. She began fencing at age Why this sport?
