Hadley Husisian, an 18-year-old epee fencer from Oakton, Va., and the reigning junior world champion in women’s epee, shares how she got into fencing, the trick for keeping up with schoolwork when traveling and what it was like to qualify for her first Senior World Team.
In this episode of First to 15, we're joined by Hadley Husisian, an 18-year-old epee fencer from Oakton, Va., and the reigning junior world champion in women’s epee. Hadley represents the Fencers Club Inc., Elite Fencing Academy and DC Fencers Club.
First to 15: The Official Podcast of USA Fencing
Host: Bryan Wendell
Cover art: Manna Creations
Theme music: Brian Sanyshyn
[INTRO]
[00:00:01] BW: Hello, and welcome to First to 15, the official podcast of USA Fencing. I'm your host, Bryan Wendell, and in this show you're going to hear from some of the most inspiring, interesting, and insanely talented people in the sport we all love. First to 15 is for anyone in the fencing community and even for those just checking out fencing to see what it's all about. So whether you're an Olympian or a Paralympian, a newcomer, a seasoned veteran, a fencing parent, a fan, or anyone else in this wonderful community, this podcast is for you. With that, let's get to today's episode. Enjoy.
[INTERVIEW]
[00:00:40] BW: Please welcome today's guest, Hadley Husisian, an 18-year-old epee fencer from Oakton, Virginia. Hadley, who represents the Fencers Club Inc. Elite Fencing Academy and DC Fencers Club is the reigning Junior World Champion in Women's Epee, and we're recording this actually just a couple of days after she learned she qualified for her first Senior World Team. So congrats, Hadley, and welcome to the podcast.
[00:01:03] HH: Thank you so much for having me.
[00:01:04] BW: So let's jump right into the latest news. The Senior World Championships are happening this July in Cairo, Egypt. For those who are newer to following fencing, that event is second only to the Olympics in prestige, right? This is the top annual tournament in the sport. For those who don't know, for each nation, you can send up to four fencers per gender per weapon. Hadley, you competed all season long, and you've secured one of those four spots. So my first question is how does it feel knowing that you've made that jump to the senior team?
[00:01:35] HH: It feels fantastic. When I first started competing at senior this year, this wasn't really my goal. This was my first year competing at the senior circuit, and I really didn't know if I'd be ready. Like at my first senior tournament, it was just such a huge jump from junior. I finished like one or two above the cut line. I battled back from pools and had some comeback bouts to make table 16, which was just shocking. So this whole year and the success I’ve had has just been really surprising, and I've been really proud of what's happening.
I'm really looking forward to competing at Senior World Championships, especially with how welcoming the senior team has been for me. I think it's going to be great to travel with them so much these next few months, which are going to be pretty busy. But because they've been so nice, it's not something I'm dreading. It's something I'm really, really looking forward to.
[00:02:19] BW: Yeah. That's so cool. It's been inspiring to kind of watch your journey. But I want to talk about the qualification journey because to someone new to the sport, it might look a little bit complex. So can you explain how you even qualify for the senior team? You talked about the senior circuit. Explain how that works and how you earned enough points to qualify.
[00:02:40] HH: Yeah. I mean, it's complicated for someone who isn't new to the sport. It's a lot, especially this year with COVID. It’s like never before has a tournament been canceled, a World Cup been canceled halfway through. For Women's Epee, it happened twice this year. One was in Sochi, where I wasn't competing. But with the war being declared, they fenced at the table floor, but everyone was evacuating. So they had to stop the tournament.
The other was in Fujairah. We fenced day one, and day two buses never came because the sheikh or the president had died. So that tournament was canceled too. It’s been a very, very crazy season. But I believe you'll have four World Cups and four Grand Prixes, and whoever the top four who amassed the most points from all of those are the ones who get to represent the US at World Championships in the summer.
[00:03:25] BW: Yeah. So it's about consistency, right? Because you had some really good results this season. You had a silver medal at a domestic tournament, October 2021, at the North American Cup, the NAC there. Then you had a top 16 in Estonia at the Tallinn World Cup. But those two results isn't going to get it done. You have to be consistent throughout the season, which you were. So what was your secret, I guess, to that consistent fencing tournament after tournament?
[00:03:51] HH: I mean, I think it's really more about the preparation you do leading into the tournaments. I followed a pretty exact schedule up until pretty much an hour. My clubs have kind of switched around lately, but just making sure you get the practice time and to put yourself in the best position possible because especially epee can be really random. From day to day, you can win one tournament and like not make it out of pools with the next one. Consistency can be really tough, but it's just going into it, knowing you did everything you could to prepare, and learning everything you can from your last tournament to try to repeat if you get a good result or do better if you didn't.
[00:04:28] BW: So let's talk about that. What is that process of kind of recapping in your mind how you did at a previous tournament? Are you going back and watching whatever videos available? Are you talking with your coaches? How do you reflect, so you can grow?
[00:04:42] HH: Definitely. Video watching is big. I mean, I often – If it's a good battle, definitely watch that many times, and I'll kind of have to force myself to watch if it's a painful one. But, yeah, you got to learn from that. After every turn when I watch the video and try to work on my mistakes as soon as I get back to the club because sometimes there are habits that get you down and get me down for years. They're just like mistakes that keep happening, so you have to grind away to try to improve at them just a little bit at a time.
[00:05:12] BW: Yeah, I'm sure. I'm amazed by how you and your fellow Team USA fencers are able to adjust to another factor that I didn't really think about. But the time change, right? Because if you're in Poland, for example, which was your last tournament of the season, 9:00 AM Poland time, when you start fencing is 3:00 AM back home on the East Coast. So you're usually asleep. But now, you're being asked defense against the best in the world. A lot of your competitors are from European countries, where they don't have that huge change. So do you have a strategy for making that adjustment?
[00:05:48] HH: Sure. I mean, I'd say I'm a very skilled sleeper. When we traveled to Doha, it was a 13-hour flight, and I basically blinked open my eyes when we were in landing. So I slept 13 hours straight, and my teammates have a lot of videos of me like sleeping at the venue. So for me, it's not quite as big of a factor as it might be for some of my other teammates because I find it very easy to like go to sleep at whatever hour it might be back on the East Coast in the US.
But it can be tiring, especially with all these tournaments in a row, and especially with some of my European competitors being able to drive to the event. But you just got to do your best to adjust to it. I mean, all my teammates are going through the same thing. So it's just something you have to get used to.
[00:06:29] BW: Sure. I got to hear about your secret to being able to sleep anywhere, anytime. That's a skill in itself, right? At these tournaments, once you advance from pooled into the Des, the direct elimination rounds, obviously there's a moment when the tableau goes up, and you see who you're going to offense against. So when you see the name of the woman who's going to be across from you on the strip in that next round, what do you do with that information? Are you doing some advanced scouting? Or do you just kind of approach each bout the same way and worry about your own game?
[00:06:58] HH: Yeah. I mean, I always try to take it one bout at a time, especially because I look at who I'm fencing against. You go to senior tournaments, and you're surrounded by like 50 Olympians, 10 World Champions. Like these people whose bouts you've watched, and you've looked up to, and now you have to try to compete against them like tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM. You’re like, “Oh, boy.”
But, I mean, luckily, there's a lot of video to watch because most of the people I'm competing against had been at it for like 20 years. So I'm always big on watching video ahead of time. I like to have as much information as possible going into it. I'm not someone who like wants to feel it out on the strip in the moment. I like to have a lot of information. So I'll usually watch like four or five DEs of my opponent for the next day and talk it through with my coach.
Only if I have a lesson the day before to prepare, it's like solely focused on that first bout because each bout that you fence is going to be against someone very, very tough with a lot of experience. So you have to do everything you can to be ready for it.
[00:07:50] BW: Then when you don't have overnight to prepare, when it's just between rounds on that that DE day, how are you handling that? Because there's not – You don't have quite as much time in between rounds to prepare for your next opponent if you're successful in the previous bout.
[00:08:08] HH: Sure. I think I just try to do the same thing, but you're not quite as extensive. So I just watch like one bout when I’m fencing and talk it through with my coach real quickly. Like bounce up and down and stay warm. You just do the best you can with the time you have.
[00:08:21] BW: Of course, you hope you're fencing the entire day. But then there's going to be some tournaments, like you said, just in the nature of epee that you're not going to be as successful and your day is going to end earlier. So how do you spend that extra time at the venue if you're done earlier than you hoped you were?
[00:08:36] HH: Yeah. Usually, if I had a hard loss, I'll go sit by myself a while and think about it. That's always important. I don't watch the video right away. I'll usually do that like on a plane ride home. So the rest of the day is going to be I usually toggle through with my coach. He always likes to summarize after a win or a loss, what happened.
Then I'll spend the rest of the day cheering for my teammates who are still in because the US have been doing really well this year. So I always have someone to cheer on. I spend the rest of the day just talking, maybe catching up on homework. I'll bring my computer to the venue, just in case I lose, and trying to clap for my teammates who are still in and hope for their success.
[00:09:13] BW: Yeah. Did I see a photo of you that maybe [inaudible 00:09:15] shot of like surrounded by homework at one of these venues?
[00:09:19] HH: Yeah. Yeah. I think I was fencing at like noon, and the last bus to the venue was like 9:00 AM. So I had some time to spare, and my AP Gov exam was coming up. So I had my textbook and my computer on my lap. So I was trying to make a study guide.
[00:09:33] BW: That's awesome. Yeah. That's a great segue because you are a student as well. So how do you balance that? First of all, how do you explain to your teachers back home that, “Hey, I'm going to be gone for these large chunks, but I'm actually still going to be studying.”? How do you, while you're on the road, actually keep up with that promise of doing the studying and getting the schoolwork done?
[00:09:56] HH: Yeah. The biggest thing for me is communication, and I've been very fortunate to have very understanding teachers throughout high school. So at the beginning of the year, I'll go to them and be like, “Hey, I might be traveling a little bit this year,” and I don't think they understand right away that I am fencing at a pretty high level, and I am going to be gone a lot. So they'll see pretty soon when I like come to them with like a stack of absence forms for them to fill out. They're like, “Oh, okay. So we're going to have to adjust things a little for this student.”
Usually, I'll take exams ahead of time or behind time. I'm meeting with teachers, basically, every day I'm in school, which admittedly isn't that often with how much I compete, just to make things up, making them up when I get back. There’s always a way to get things done. I don't like asking for extensions, just because those can pile up. So I try to use maybe the plane rides, if I'm not sleeping, like the free moments before the tournament after my bouts are done for the day, and just slowly chip away at things to still got to focus on school and when I'm traveling. Luckily, my teachers –
[00:10:56] BW: Yeah. Do you get the sense that your teachers and classmates understand who is in their midst that there's a Junior World Champion that is at their school and someone who's fencing at this really high level? Or is this kind of like almost a secret identity in the sense that you go off on the weekend and you compete in these really intense tournaments? Then you come back and you're just a normal student. What was the vibe like?
[00:11:23] HH: Yeah. I mean, it's no secret. I think when it was more of a secret was like my junior year because tournaments for most of the year were canceled with COVID. So my teachers, I've mentioned to them that I was a fencer, but they didn't really understand that until I went to World Championships, and I was gone for such a long time, especially because my school implemented like the quarantine policy if you're traveling. I think then they understood that I was going to be out, and especially this year I missed so much school.
But I don't think my classmates totally understand what it means I think until World Championships. Even if they don't know fencing, they know that winning, becoming World Champion is a pretty big deal. But even then, like I remember I like flew out right after the team event at 2:00 AM. I came back and I was like riding this huge high because I was really happy with the result. Then I missed so many due to school. I got back in DC and I went to math class that day.
[00:12:13] BW: Oh, my gosh.
[00:12:16] HH: I think now my classmates have maybe a better idea of like how – They see how often I’ve gone, but I don't know if like anyone's going to fully understand fencing who’s not in that world.
[00:12:26] BW: Sure, yeah. What a crazy feeling. You're like halfway across the world. Then a few hours later, you're back in math class with the medal in your backpack maybe. So let's talk about some of your competition this season. The last World Cup event of the season was the Katowice World Cup in Poland. In that team event, you all took on the bronze. It was you and three of your teammates, who were also going to be your teammates in Egypt, we should say, Kat Holmes, Margherita Guzzi Vicente, and Anna Van Brummen. So how do you feel that medal helps you and your teammates having that positive wave as you go into Egypt?
[00:13:03] HH: I think it’s great. I mean, every World Cup we've had this year, we've gone a table further and we've done better. So hopefully, it means a fine litter or that World Championships is always the goal. But I felt great. The team worked really, really well together. Like some of the bouts, the touches they were getting that were insane. I was really proud of my own fencing too, and I was really happy with how much trust they had in me, as someone who this is their first year in senior. They still trust me to go out there and fence against these really high level fencers.
They're just so much fun to interact with, even when we're not fencing. When we had like an hour before our bronze medal match, we were just talking, and it was a great feeling. I really like interacting with the team. It makes it so that all these events aren't a sludge, like they're just something that's fun.
[00:13:51] BW: That's awesome. You told our American Fencing Magazine reporter that actually Kat and Anna are kind of two of your role models and people you've looked up to in fencing. Now, they're your teammates. So what has that been like to kind of now you're not just watching them from afar, but you're watching them on the side of the strip and then going out there and competing alongside them?
[00:14:14] HH: Yeah. It's very trippy. To say that they're my only role models would be an under exaggeration. Like I really look up to everyone who's fencing or if they’re in senior. They’re all great. They've all been welcoming. It’s crazy. It’s like I've been watching them so long, and now they're just my friends. We just like fence together on the same team. I like high five them as I hand the reel off to them. In our bouts, we like get dinner together afterwards. It’s a great feeling, and it really shows how much I've grown since I started the sport, and it makes me excited for my future.
[00:14:45] BW: That's so cool, and it's great that they're so welcoming to you and don't treat you like the fourth member of the team, for lack of a better term. That's awesome. I want to go back a little bit to April and the Junior and Cadet World. We've talked about a little bit. But as we said, you won gold in the junior individual event and then bronze in the junior team event. There's a really great photo from that tournament taken by Eva Pavia Gomez, and it's right after you won the gold. It’s just clear the emotion on your face.
I just am wondering, what was going through your head when you realized that you were the World Champion and that you had that gold medal?
[00:15:21] HH: It was extremely surreal. The entire day had been very hard, like there's no easy bout. Every bout was a struggle. I had to come back from down 13-11 to down 12-10 against some really good fencers. It was just the entire day was very draining. The entire year, like so much work went into it, not just with me, with my coach and my family, and everyone who was training with me.
So like getting the last touch, especially because I remember I came out of the last minute break and I was up by five, I was just like, “I can really do this. I can do this. I just got to stay calm.” When I got that last touch, it was just like such a release. Just I had all these memories of all the like hard moments in training and like jumping down from the piece and hugging my coach. It was just the best feeling.
I remember being up on top of the podium when they're playing the national anthem, and I started crying. Just I think wanted the cameras away. But I was so, so happy with the result. Just like getting in bed that night and just being completely satisfied with that day of fencing was just a feeling that like I never want to forget.
[00:16:31] BW: That's so cool. Do you remember who your first call or text was after you stepped off the podium with a gold medal around your neck?
[00:16:40] HH: Well, I remember I didn't have Wi-Fi in the venue until I got to the lobby, and then my phone started blowing up. I had a lot of – On Instagram, just like so many messages. So I couldn't say who I messaged first back from that. But I spent the rest of the night trying to reply to everyone. I remember I went to the sports med room, which was also a really great experience because like all my teammates and like people and other weapons as well were there. We are all this talking, and I was stressed out like trying to respond to everybody. But it was a great feeling, like having all these people wanted to wish me well and congratulate me and all my friends and sometimes people I didn't know or people I've looked up to. It's just a great feeling.
[00:17:21] BW: So one thing about the motivation of an athlete, and I've never been an elite athlete, so I don't know this world. But I'm curious. If you win, let's say, a bronze or a silver, that seems like there's kind of an innate motivation there because you knew, “Oh, I was just a touch or two away from that gold medal from the top of the podium.” But in Dubai, obviously, like we just said, you won gold. So you can't say you just missed out. You did it, right? You're there. You're the champion. So how do you take that gold medal and use that as motivation for future competition?
[00:17:55] HH: I mean, it's like I said. That feeling is something not just that I don't want to forget, but something that I want to replicate as often as possible. So pretty quickly from Junior World Championships, I had to shift my focus to qualifying for the senior team. I think the next weekend, I had the April NAC. There's a pretty quick turnaround, so you have to use it as motivation. But also, you can't say like, “Ah, I've achieved everything I want,” because I haven't yet. There's still a lot more I want to do in the sport. So you keep that in your mind as something to push you forward, not as something that'll hold you back or make you feel comfortable.
[00:18:27] BW: Yeah, well said. So you've got a lot of exciting things in your future that you still want to do, like you said. Obviously, Senior World is coming up. Then after that, you're off to Princeton, right? You're going to join the strong fencing program there. So I'm really curious about the process of being a recruited athlete, like how many schools you looked at, what that recruiting journey was like, and then why you ultimately made the choice that you did.
[00:18:53] HH: For me, I think it's going to be different than a lot of athletes that came before me and a lot that will come after me because mine was during COVID. So I didn't get to have any official visits. All of my talks with coaches were over Zoom. But for me, it was great because I'd know basically, since I started fencing and since I went to a summer camp at Princeton, that that was going to be my number one choice. I kept my mind open for other schools, and I reached out to a lot of places, but that was always the goal. So it was great to see that they had interest in me as well.
I'm really, really looking forward to attending there in the fall. I did end up having my official visit after I committed, like more than a year after I committed actually. The team was so nice. It made me like all the more excited to be able to join them in just a couple months.
[00:19:37] BW: So when you started fencing when you were 10, did you ever think that this was going to lead to – Like forget about the Senior Worlds but even just a college, an opportunity to attend a college like Princeton. I’m not saying you wouldn't have gotten in with academics, but just the fact that fencing helped you with that journey and get into such an elite school.
[00:19:58] HH: No. It definitely wasn't my goal. I'm not and my family has not historically been incredibly athletically inclined. So it was a big surprise. I mean, I'd still say like I had no natural talent for the sport. I wasn't some child prodigy that came out of the woodworks, and like I got dead last at my first summer nationals.
It was funny that the person who was second to last was actually Ketki Ketkar, who was in the semi-finals at World Championships. So it's funny to see how we grew. So, no, when I started fencing, I very quickly started going every day. But it wasn't because I had some grand goal of one day becoming a world champion or joining the Princeton team. It was just because I liked it. Very, very, very slowly, I got better, and then I started seeing some of the potential for what I could accomplish if I had success in the sport.
[00:20:46] BW: Then I read that you actually weren't wanting to do archery at first and then fencing was maybe a second choice. Imagine if that decision had gone the other way, that you wouldn't have this World Champion right now.
[00:20:57] HH: Yeah. It was my second choice. That waitlist for archery was too long because the Hunger Games craze was still there when I first wanted to try archery. I signed up for fencing and for this drama program at the same time, and drama definitely wasn't calling my name because I think I got the role of like villager 34 at my school play. So that didn't pan out, and obviously archery didn’t either. But for both of those, I'm very grateful they didn't. So that’s definitely not my passion.
[00:21:25] BW: Yeah, sure. Well, you talked about the long, slow journey and finishing last at your first tournament. So a lot of people, and I daresay myself included, would have maybe been like, “Well, I'm going to try something else now.” So why did you stick with it? Like what kept you coming back, even though you weren't getting that “instant gratification” from the sport?
[00:21:49] HH: That's something I don't completely know. I think I'm the type of person who kind of throws everything at something or doesn't do it at all. I'm an all or nothing person. So I started out like I would go like on a Saturday and I would go to the beginner class. Then I'd go to like the intermediate class and then the elite class and the footwork class and the exercise class. That was going seven days a week, which isn't sustainable. Now, I do six. That was a little much.
But I don't know. I just really liked giving my all to something. Even if I wasn't actually doing well at tournaments, I knew I was doing my best every day at practice and slowly get better. It was just nice having a sport where I could actually like use my head, and I wasn't just like completely terrible at, though it was off the bat. This is the one sport I've had like a modicum of success. So I was like, “I guess I'll stick to this one,” and I'm glad I did.
[00:22:39] BW: Yeah. And we're glad you did too. So last question, what kind of the trajectory for you like when you allow yourself to daydream a little bit? Obviously, I imagined making the senior team was part of that, but what about that and beyond?
[00:22:53] HH: Yeah. I think everyone who starts fencing or really does any sport is at some point going to want to go to the Olympics. That definitely is something that's on the radar for me is like this huge goal that would be amazing to do. But for me, I'm trying to take it one tournament at a time. So I'm looking forward to World Championships. I'm looking forward to going to college. That is obviously 2024 Olympics is something that is always in the back of my head. But for now, we're just going to enjoy the process.
[00:23:21] BW: Yeah. We'll be enjoying watching. So Hadley Husisian, thanks so much for being our guest on the podcast, and best of luck to you in Egypt and beyond.
[00:23:30] HH: Thank you so much for having me.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
[00:23:32] BW: Thanks for listening to First to 15, the official podcast of USA Fencing. We'll be back with our next conversation in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, you can stay up to date on all the latest fencing news by following us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. If you liked this podcast, please help us grow and reach more people by leaving us a rating or review. Until next time, I'm Bryan Wendell, and I hope to see you real soon out on the Strip. Bye.
[END]