Making it to the Olympics is no easy feat. It takes years of training and competition, biding your time and hoping you’ll perform at your best in order to qualify. Much of the process relies on strategy, skill, and maneuvering—things that might sound very familiar to a fencer. Two young women heading to the Paris Olympics later this month know exactly what it takes to realize these moves on and off the piste. One is a teenager fresh out of high school, and the other is a 20-something who has walked runways around the world—but both understand the mix of excitement and nerves that define the weeks leading up to your first-ever Games.
Anne Cebula, 27, a Brooklyn native and épéeist (the three weapons used in competitive fencing are the épée, foil, and saber), didn’t always imagine she’d be a fencer. In fact, she hadn’t even thought of trying the sport until she was 15 and discovered a sudden interest while watching the 2008 Olympics on TV. After looking into classes and finding they were too pricey to afford, she started learning through an “expedited and inexpensive” outlet: a free after-school club. Before she knew it, Cebula was climbing the ranks of the fencing world, and by 2016, she had become a two-time Division I national champion on the women’s épée team.
In her eyes, taking on the sport at a later age—compared to other professional athletes, at least—was a blessing, because she did not grow up with a constant pressure to compete. “I saw my peers, and they’re all stressed out because they’re dealing with Ivy League recruiting and all that, and I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m just happy to be here!’” Cebula recalls.
On the other end of the spectrum is Magda Skarbonkiewicz, an 18-year-old Oregon-born sabreur who defines her journey as being practically “born into fencing.” This feels pretty accurate when you look at Skarbonkiewicz’s dad and coach, Adam, who nearly made it to the Olympics himself and is a former U.S. national saber champion. Skarbonkiewicz heading to the Olympics just continues the family legacy of excellence in the sport.
“Overall, he’s been able to teach me a lot,” she says of her father, noting that it can be hard to draw lines when your parent is your coach, but that it also helps a lot when the going gets tough. “I’ve had to mature so quickly in the sport that he’s been like, ‘Hey—take a step back, breathe. Collect yourself and then go to the sport.’”
Despite having taken two totally different paths to their Olympic debuts, Cebula and Skarbonkiewicz have each found incredible success in fencing. The latter was a two-time Junior World Champion in 2022 and 2023, while the former claimed the NCAA Women’s Épée National Champion title in 2019 while studying at Barnard—becoming the first student-athlete to ever claim an individual NCAA national title in any sport for the school.
Of course, getting to the Olympic level often requires serious sacrifices along the way. For Skarbonkiewicz, that meant missing around 50 days of school and a few teenage milestones, too. “I had to sacrifice my senior year—all the senior traditions, graduation…” she says. For Cebula, who turned to modeling when the COVID-19 pandemic kept her from playing formally for nearly two years, that meant dropping out of some major runway shows. She says, “I always have to send in my schedule for [my agency] to chart off, and they’ve turned down some pretty big projects because they’re like, ‘Sorry! She’s in—I don’t know—Tallinn, Estonia.’”
Still, both knew what the payoff could be in return for all those sacrifices. “I just can’t wait to get to the Olympics and be like, ‘This is why I sacrificed it all!’” Skarbonkiewicz says. And while the pressure might feel higher than ever, these two are excited to take on the challenge.
Skarbonkiewicz already has her “boss music” playlists ready to go. “I will look psycho sometimes. I’m, like, dancing to myself. It’s not a club, but I brought the club to the strip, I guess,” she jokes, explaining that music is her calming medicine when the pressure gets too high.
Cebula, meanwhile, says that while on the runway she can act like a “mannequin,” on the piste she has to tap into a different sort of courage. “It’s really important to be wholeheartedly confident,” she says, adding that her sports psychologist has given her cues to help whenever she’s feeling off. “Remember to stay present and remind yourself why you’re there.”
Just a couple of weeks after she leaves Paris, Skarbonkiewicz is going straight to the University of Notre Dame to start college—where she will continue fencing. “My life is very much a roller coaster,” she admits.
Cebula has very different plans. “I want to retire from fencing for sure. I kind of gave myself [an ultimatum],” she says, explaining that she’s had quite a while to solidify her decision. “I was like, ‘Either I make the Olympics or not this year, but I want to drop everything and just 100 percent go for it.’” Thankfully, she did, and soon, her goal will have been realized.
No matter the outcome, the Games will mark a new end and a new beginning for these athletes. Cebula puts it candidly when she notes, “I’m excited to see other parts of my personality, you know—who I am as a person. Because this has been a great part of it, but there’s more to life than sport.”
Source: HarpersBAZAAR.com, Getty Images
