We’re thrilled to be speaking with Tori Isaacson, one of our remarkable parafencers, who is already in Paris gearing up for the Paralympic Games.
In this episode, we’re thrilled to be speaking with Tori Isaacson, one of our remarkable parafencers, who is already in Paris gearing up for the Paralympic Games. This fencing journey started in high school, where Tori was captivated by the sport's strategic and fast-paced nature. Despite facing significant challenges after being diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Tori has turned to parafencing as a powerful outlet for a natural competitive spirit.
In addition to being a dedicated athlete, Tori is also a doctor of occupational therapy, specializing in outpatient hand therapy. In this conversation, we chat with Tori about the experience in Paris so far, competition preparation, and what it means to be part of Team USA.
[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:02] BW: Hello, and welcome to First to 15. The official podcast of USA Fencing. I'm your host Bryan Wendell. In this show, you're going to hear from some of the most inspiring, interesting, and insanely talented people in this 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. Whether you're an Olympian, or 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]
[0:00:39] BW: All right, today we are thrilled to be speaking with Tori Isaacson, who is one of our amazing parafencer, and is already actually as we speak in Paris, getting ready for the Paralympic Games. This fencing journey started in high school, where Tori was captivated by this sport's strategic and fast-paced nature. Then in spite of some challenges after being diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Tori turned to parafencing as a powerful outlet for a natural competitiveness.
In addition to being a dedicated athlete, Tori is also a doctor of occupational therapy, specializing in outpatient hand therapy. We're excited to chat with Tori about the Paris experience so far, competition prep, and what it means to be a part of Team USA. Hey, Tori. Welcome to the podcast.
[0:01:22] TI: Hi. Thanks for having me.
[0:01:23] BW: I'm excited to chat with you, especially because you're already in Paris, and actually before we started talking, you said you've been there about a day and a half, gotten to eat some of the village food. How are you settling in so far to the village life?
[0:01:37] TI: Settling in pretty good. Usually when we go to World Cups, we're all like in a hotel with everyone from the sport. So, I'm used to it being a very cramped nature thing, but it's definitely cool to see like more sports and like talk to other people so far, and I'm really looking forward to being here where like I can interact with people. I wouldn't necessarily get to interact with during our like cycle for things, because we're pretty isolated as a sport in general to something like track field and stuff like that.
[0:02:07] BW: Sure. So, you might see other fencers when you go to Poland for a World Cup, but obviously you're not seeing many athletes from other sports, if at all, in that scenario. That's really cool. Also, the schedule is such that we're talking on August 27th, Tuesday, which is a week before the first day of wheelchair fencing competition in Paris. How will the next week unfold for you?
[0:02:32] TI: For the next week, I'm focusing on rehab today and most of tomorrow, just to get over like anything that flying does to my body, because I get very inflamed and just trying to catch up. I don't really get too jet-lagged that bad, so it usually only takes me a day. I just get my bearings a little bit. Then I'll do like a nice gentle lesson the first day. Then I'll start ramping it up as I go on. Just keeping pace. I don't want to burn myself out, but I also don't want to like get complacent or rusty while here.
Today, I rested and I fixed some equipment, and then tomorrow I'll do like a really gentle movement lesson. Then I'll do boating and stuff the following days. Then intermix some rest periods in there too, as well.
[0:03:21] BW: It seems like unlike a World Cup, you have a luxury of a little bit more time, am I right? Because for a World Cup, you might get there like one or two days before competition, something like that.
[0:03:31] TI: Yeah. Well, probably usually we get there like one or two days before. Then we do weapons check, and then we compete three days in a row, and then we turn around and come home.
[0:03:38] BW: Yeah. It's crazy. Okay, so what has the village been like? What's your experience so far? Any standout highlights just a day and a half in?
[0:03:48] TI: I would say one of the things that's like, it's like constantly something's always happening, so there's a lot of noise happening all the time just because of the sheer number of people here, but there's also like, it's kind of a mini city, so we have like cool coffee bars and stuff like that. It's pretty cool walking around, and then there's always being access to water, coffee, snacks, things like that as we're walking around and just bouncing back and forth between the locations. It'll be interesting how that plays out over time, but it's like a small little city where we're all packed in, so you have all the noise of everything, you have games playing music. It was definitely a lot to take in at first, but I'm starting to get used to it.
[0:04:33] BW: Yeah. It's a city, but filled with athletes who are there to do a job. The best part is that you're also not there alone, or I would imagine the best part. You've got five other athletes on Team USA who are competing with you in wheelchair fencing, and then coaches, and cadre. So, what's it like to share that journey with those people who you travel and compete with all the time?
[0:04:56] TI: I think it's very special. We had someone today, the photographer, during our like fitting for the clothes, say we looked like we were like the closest team that is photographed in a bit just because of how cohesive we were and like we wanted to do fun things, and we were like hugging each other and stuff like that. He said, we were very cohesive as a team, and for us this is really important, because this is the first time, we've had both some men and women's team qualify, well over 20 years.
Being here finally is very beneficial, because I helped qualify the Tokyo team, which was one of the first women's team we've had in 20 years. I put a lot of work in helping them qualify and then to be able to do it again for Paris and then be on the team, not just with Ellen and Jay, but also with the guys, has been really great, especially because like a bunch of us are really close. I talked to a couple of them on a daily or every other day basis. It's like going on this amazing journey with people that you truly see as your friends.
[0:06:00] BW: Yeah. It seems like interacting with you all at NACS, for example, it seems like everybody is just so close, but obviously, like we said, you are there to compete, so how are you feeling about the competition with a week still to go? You talked about your roadmap to get to that first day of competition, but how are you feeling right now? What are some of your goals and expectations?
[0:06:27] TI: For me, I've been working with the sports cycle a lot. We're just looking at this another competition, which is probably why I've been having such a, like I haven't been like, oh, really excited or like overwhelmed so far with the experience, but my plan going into the competition is trying to keep the same mental processes as a World Cup where I'm not going to focus on the results. I'm going to go in. I'm going to do my best. I'm going to do what I've been training and just trust where that goes. If I get far, I get far. If I find a roadblock, it's my job to solve it. If I don't, then I learned something. Ultimately, we're all just working towards LA at this point.
[0:07:04] BW: Oh, interesting. You're seeing this as a nice building block on the way to LA. Can you talk more about that? Because it is true that we sent three athletes to Tokyo and nobody was necessarily guaranteeing that we would send more than two or three to Paris. To have six is incredible, but also, we feel like we can do more, right? As, as USA fencing and as the parafencers themselves. How do you feel about that?
[0:07:33] TI: Historically, the US has not been like the team that people look at. They're like, “Oh, we need to worry about them.” We're starting to see that change. We're starting to see other countries. Watch our bouts, film our bouts, watch our lessons. You'll see the coaches coming around watching what we're doing. To us, that's like really important, because that shows they see us as a potential threat in the next cycle. So, for us to do well in this sport and kind of like place our claim of being like, “Oh, you got to watch out for that team.”’ Is going to be so important to us for LA. That's what we're really looking forward to. We don't want to be seen as the easy bout anymore.
As a program, we're working very hard as well as a program developer and the head of Parafencing and stuff like that. So, everyone's working hard to get to the point where we can be a formidable opponent and be meddling. This is the first step of it is qualifying two full teams, but also, I don't think any of my teammates are going to make it an easy bout for anyone. There might be people that think it's going to be an easy bout, but then it's probably going to be more challenging than I think any of the other countries are thinking.
[0:08:41] BW: We've seen this on the Olympic side too, the value of just being there and experiencing it, like that's going to be something that you can just have in your toolkit, I guess you could say when you go to LA, right, is knowing what it's like to fence at the Paralympics, right? What better setting than the Grand Palais in Paris? It's just going to be an incredible opportunity. So, there's the value there too. Just like knowing I've been there before and I know what this is like.
[0:09:11] TI: Yeah, for sure. I think the Grand Palais is like a once in a lifetime experience too. I'm really looking forward to that. So far, this Paralympics is going to be the one with the most media and sold-out tickets for fencing events, which is going to be crazy, I think, to see in person, especially since it's like history of the making.
[0:09:30] BW: Yeah. It's going to be awesome. I can't wait to tune in. I'll be watching on peacock from home and just really excited. So, can we talk about just parafencing, in general? Because I would love to know what is something when we're watching the Paralympics and when we're watching parafencing at a knack, let's say, what do you wish that the able-bodied fencers and the layperson, let's say, knew about parafencing that maybe they don't?
[0:09:59] TI: I think one of the most common misconceptions we get is people thinking we're moving the chairs while we're fencing, but the chairs are actually anchored in place. We're using our body and our arms to move, not our legs. This creates a very different dynamic from fencing. We are still kind of like the same sport, but the technical skills, the timing and the distance is so different. We're kind of a completely separate sport. It's not the subset of fencing catered towards disabled people, so that we can be a part of it. We're kind of our own little sport within the fencing world, because everything is so different and not everyone can pick it up and do really well at it for coming from able-body and like coaches have to work and figure out how to coach it.
It's not something you're like, “Oh, I teach fencing, so I can do this.” Like there's a lot to learn and there's a lot of similarities, because yes, we're the same sport, but distance, timing, technique is all very different, because of the angles we're working at. Then the other thing is just the speed. I don't think people realize how fast parafencers move. When you watch it for the first time in person, it's a lot faster than you see it on the videos, just how fast people are breaking off LA and moving and how fast the pair posts are.
The timing is very, very different and the fencers tend to be a lot faster from the arm and the body, creating some very high tempo actions that you see in like Olympic fencing, but maybe not as frequently, like you'll have your given takes with the distance, but wheelchair, we're like locked in place, so we have to have the high speed in the fight.
[0:11:39] BW: Yeah. I mean, you're within striking distance right at when the referee says fence and you've got to be ready and have your action prepared, right? I love that about parafencing So, you started on the able-bodied side, right? I'm saying, what was the that transition like for you? Because you talked about how someone at, let's say, like a walk and roll tournament is going to sit down and fencing against a parafencer and it'll be an eye and opening experience for them, for sure, but what was your own experience, if you don't mind sharing?
[0:12:11] TI: It was like I was learning a whole new sport from scratch. I knew what a four was. I knew what a six was, like I knew the parries and I knew the technical terms, but I had a parcel aside in my head what fencing was and relearn from scratch. I think it was actually harder to try to step out from viewing fencing of how I knew it to then moving into doing fencing in a different way, just because so many things were different.
I kept getting hung up on, but this is how I was taught to do it. Then another was I was moving from – at bay and I did a lot of flushing. I did a lot of foot touches and I used my legs a lot to move in and out of distance, but in wheelchair, there's no foot touches. There's no flushes, so I had to like rebuild my whole game, but I was pretty young when I switched over. I switched over in 2018, so I was 20 years old. I was able to have the time to figure everything out and like build the conditioning for it.
[0:13:10] BW: How was the experience of being welcomed into that community? Because we talked about how close you all are, but you were a newcomer on the scene, not too long ago. What was it like for you coming in, seeing a bunch of opponents who's who maybe you didn't recognize?
[0:13:28] TI: Everyone was pretty welcoming. It was so long ago. I honestly don't remember that much. Just overall positive vibes. I was pretty young and a lot of the people were older than me, but now that I'm like – I'm a working professional in my late 20s. I'm getting closer to 30. The bond with like my teammates has gotten a lot better, because now, we're like starting to have the same lived experiences. Which was a little weird when you're younger and you like want to be a member of the team, but there is such a, like age gap and stuff like that.
Now, I basically grew into the adult form I am during this sport time. I went from undergrad of college to grad school to a working professional all throughout the Tokyo, now the Paris cycle. I've grown as a person with the team. That is very important to me. I think that's what helped foster some of those friendships I have.
[0:14:23] BW: Can we talked about – and actually something I've noticed when I'm seeing you at tournaments is when you're not like fencing or getting ready to fence, sometimes you're like studying and working on your doctorate, what was that like? Because that's very going to be very relatable to all fencers who are students and athletes at the same time. How are you able to balance an international and domestic fencing schedule with wanting to pursue higher education?
[0:14:48] TI: When I was completing my doctorate, I would get the fencing schedule at the beginning of the year and I would go to my professors for that semester and be like, “I need to be gone at this time. Will this work? Can we work it out?” Usually, the answer was yes, if not, then I'd have to adjust the schedule, so I couldn't go to Zonals the first time, but I knew I could go to the second one.
We made things work out. That was just because I was on clinicals and clinicals wasn't as like time flexible, which is completely fine. I was like working in different settings and just having a really good time management, like parceling aside that time to study. I took my licensing exam, maybe a week before I left for world championships. I would wake up. I would do some household chores. I would study for two hours. I'd eat lunch, I study for another two hours. Then I would go to the fencing club and I would teach lessons and run some classes and then get a lesson myself. I kept that balance going after I graduated.
I also purposely timed when I was entering my doctorate program to the ending of the Tokyo cycle. The hardest part of the doctorate program would be done by the time Paris started. The first it was a three and a quarter year program. That first year is all your basic stuff, like your anatomy, your lab or kinesiology, which is your harder stuff. Then the end of it was more research and field work, which had a set schedule, so I had all my field work done before Paris started.
I was able to finish field work. I had a gap. There was a World Cup between that gap. Then I started field work and then as soon as field work was done, I left for another competition again. It worked out that way. Then when you saw me in DC, I was getting ready for my last – that was my last semester of classes, then I had research and I was conducting it around wheelchair fencing and adaptive sports, so then I could put aside even more time with fencing and stuff like that.
Then as soon as I graduated, I was prepping for World Championships and my license exam, and I didn't really get myself any time off between. So, it’s like exam time and this. I'm planning on doing the same thing. I'm going to do a 12-month clinical rotation to be able to take my license exam for a step up, like another credential, which is the Certified Hand Therapist exam.
Next year, I'm going to be in a 12-month clinical on top of my 40 hours a week working to then take an exam early, so then I'll be taking the exam at the start of the LA. cycle. So, balancing work and stuff that is just you just have to be very upfront with whoever it is, your professors, your boss, whatever is happening, so then you can have a plan in place and the further notice you give people, the more willing to work with you there.
[0:17:39] BW: Yeah. I mean, like you said, if you're upfront and if you have a vision, too, it's like you're not going on vacation. You've got a plan to represent team USA in Paris. But it's one thing to have that plan coming out of Tokyo, but it's a complete other to actually realize that plan. I know we're jumping back in time here, but when you realize that you were going to be on the squad representing team USA, there in Paris, like what was that moment like for knowing that this is something that you had worked so hard for?
[0:18:12] TI: I had a moment of yay results. Then I went back to the, I want it individual for Zonals. Then we had a fence team event and I dislocated my shoulder the following day, so then I had to go into immediate planning mode of this is the doctors. I will see when I get back. This is the PT plan. This is the training plan. I went from, okay, a month of rest in PT only to, okay, we could do very gentle lessons to then three weeks after that, okay, we can go back into full training. I only got back to fencing like a week and a half ago or about – no, two weeks before I left for Paris and just knowing I kept my brain in it though.
I didn't really have any like hard transitions, so like just knowing when to put the brakes on was helpful. But like there was that moment of like, oh shit, because I hurt myself right before, like the really hard thing. I didn't really have a whole lot of time to sit in the moment of being excited, because it was very much like, “Okay, we need to fix the problem.” I think everyone else is hyping it up so much that I'm just like calm and chill. I'm like, “Okay, cool. I did it.” I feel like this was something I knew I could always do. Once I did it, I was like, “Yeah, I did that.”
[0:19:29] BW: That's awesome. Who's on your hype team? Who's going to be there in Paris? Who’s going to be watching from home, like do you have a squad who's ready to root you on in the grand play and beyond?
[0:19:42] TI: Yeah. Both my mom and dad are coming. Then two of my aunts are coming and my partner's coming with them. I have five people that will actively be in the venue for me. Then I have a lot of family at home. I have friends at home. My coach who has coached me through this whole process is the Paralympic team coach. So, going on this journey with him has been phenomenal, because we both started with not knowing anything about wheelchair and now, we're both here and to share that experience with him has been really helpful. He's like one of my biggest hype people.
He co-owns a club with a – Sandra Marchant who's going to be on the that world team this year. She's been on it three or four times before that. Everyone at her club's cheering me on. Everyone at our club, keeps cheering us on. We got like a good little happy community amongst the two. Then ultimately, like my own teammates are like huge hype people for me too.
My teammate Noah, like we're really close. When he won Sabre and we realized he qualified like all of us were crying. Like as a team, we were all collectively like, when things are winning – we were like winning, we were the biggest hype people for each other. Even when we had to fence each other, like there was a couple instances where we had to fence each other as teammates for Zonals or we have to fence each other at world cups. In the moment, we're fencing, we're fencing, but then afterwards, like we hype each other up, like there's no hard feelings. I think that's really important to have as a team too.
[0:21:17] BW: That's awesome. I think seeing that support is great. Also just seeing the support of adaptive sports and of the Paralympics. This cycle, I'd love to hear how you're interpreting this as an athlete, but from my perspective as a fan and as someone who works for USA Fencing. It seems like we're hearing more about the Paris Paralympics than any previous Paralympics, at least in my lifetime. Are you seeing that and noticing that increased attention? what does that tell you? If so.
[0:21:48] TI: I'm definitely seeing the increased attention. The biggest being they are televising wheelchair fencing. They did not televise wheelchair fencing for Tokyo. Being able to have those videos even out there is so great for promoting our sport in general, because for a while, it was a sport, we were like, “Oh, yeah, we're at the Paralympics.” But there's no way for you to watch it, unless it was the World Cup stuff.
[0:22:12] BW: You might see some photos and that's it. Yeah.
[0:22:14] TI: Yeah. Just having the amount of media we're having for the Paralympics. Then also seeing the different like videos, team USA is putting out and stuff like that. It definitely feels like we're more seen. I feel like media presence like Hunter Woodhall and his wife Tara, like having those dichotomies where we're having like the able-body teams training with the para teams and then hype each other up, I think is really helping bring the Paralympics into focus a lot.
[0:22:44] BW: Then of course, bringing it back to fencing, like how can we turn that into more people coming to our tournaments, our national tournaments to compete in the parafencing events, and actually even more importantly, showing up at clubs like yours and saying, “Hey, I want to become a parafencer, where do I sign up?” How do we, I guess harness that momentum?
[0:23:06] TI: Yeah. One of the reasons I've been doing all these interviews is so I can be like, “Listen, I'm in Dutchess County.” No one knows about any adaptive sports program in Dutchess County, but we have people with disabilities, like they're there. Just having that information out there, whether it's an article or a TV interview or anything really helps maybe just peek someone's interest. Maybe they don't know about it or like we carry brochures with us and like we were in the parking lot the other day and my coach was going to his car and a woman walked by with her daughter who was an amputee and he's like, “Hey, you want to take a lesson with a Paralympian?” Like that sells so much better than being like, “Hey, you want to come take a wheelchair fencing lesson with some random coach.”
Just having that credential, like can get more people interested and into trying things, especially since we've been putting a lot of work in. Then I've been working with some rehab hospitals and getting them on board and just building those programs, but it just makes it more marketable, so the more people we got from USA fencing, qualifying for these things, talking about it, having a better social media presence, it does really bring the sport more credit, so then that way we can get more fencers.
I'm sure like Lee Kiefer with her great successes has brought a lot of fencers to the scene just because she's been an in so many interviews. She's won the three gold medals now like that attention really does help.
[0:24:35] BW: Yeah. It's interesting. I think admirable what you said that like you almost see it as part of your job to like help spread the word and grow the sport and advocate for it to that young kid who might be an amputee and be able to get into to parafencing. I love that.
[0:24:55] TI: Yeah. Big part of OT is being an advocate, like OT is there a lot with advocacy and I spent a lot of my own time for free, just helping build program development ideas and then reaching out to places. I think honestly, if you're capable of doing it and you're in a para sport, you should do outreach.
[0:25:14] BW: Yeah. I think that's awesome. Before we let you go, I know it's nighttime there. What message do you want to share with people who are watching you compete, whether they're your fans already or whether they're future fans soon to be cheering you on?
[0:25:30] TI: I would say whenever you look at any Paralympian or Olympian, don't just say it's talent. It's a lot of hard work. My whole life, I was told I would never be an athlete, because I wasn't coordinated. I had slow reflexes. I was shorter with shorter arms for a long torso. I was never – I was told like you're never going to be good at sports, but fencing is such an adaptable sport, both able-body and para. If you put the work in and you find a coach that works with you, you can do really well in the sport, whether what your goal is, but also if you want to do something at this level, it takes a lot of sacrifice.
Don't just look at people and be like, “Oh, it's because of talent.” It's a lot of hard work too. It's as much of a money game and a time game as it is a talent game. Don't be like, “I can't do that.” Because you probably could.
[0:26:29] BW: Yeah. We want you to come out and be a part of that LA team, right? That's another message is like get started now and join the squad for LA. We need more people. That's really well said. I mean, it's so great chatting with you and it's been great cheering you on your journey to Paris and we'll be watching you in just a few days at the Paralympics. Tori Isaacson, thank you so much and good luck.
[0:26:53] TI: Thank you for having me.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
[0:26:55] BW: Thanks for listening to First of 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 like 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]