Ellen O'Leary (left) practices with Sam Dobmeyer at the Atlanta Fencers Club.
"Fencers ready. Salute. Mask. En garde." Does this sound like the language of a pediatric dietitian? Hardly. But then, Ellen O'Leary, clinical nutrition coordinator at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston, is also a world-class fencer.
After taking up the sport three years ago at the age of 62, she placed fifth in her age group at the World Veterans Fencing Championships in England last year. In her first national tournament this season, she earned a gold medal in saber and her first gold medal in women's veteran 60 foil. She has set her sights on qualifying for the national team again and competing in Sydney, Australia, this year in the world championships.
O'Leary's entry into the sport made famous by swashbuckling movie stars — think Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone — was more like a series of parries and feints than a direct thrust. She had hiked, cycled and skied with her husband, but, after his death, she needed a new activity.
"I was grieving and angry and picked up a book called 'Harnessing Anger' by Peter Westbrook. I thought it was on anger management, but it was the story of an Olympic fencer," she said.
Later, when O'Leary was looking for a literature course among the adult enrichment classes at Emory University, a fencing class caught her eye, and she signed up.
Everything clicked after that. The course was taught by Bill Murphy, the local organizer for the Olympic fencing trials, which just happened to be in Atlanta in 2004.
"Since I was a health care professional, he enlisted me to coordinate the drug testing for the athletes," said O'Leary, MS, RD, CSP, CNSD.
While O'Leary was talking to the parents of young fencers, someone asked her if she would like to fence with women her own age. Her immediate answer was "Where are they?"
They told her she'd have to compete in national tournaments — the next one was conveniently in Charlotte — and, if "she still had a pulse afterward," she might make the American Veterans Fencing Team for women 40 and older. She immediately started taking lessons at the Atlanta Fencers Club in East Point.
"Did you ever just walk into a place and realize it suits you? That's how the Atlanta Fencers Club has been for me," she said.
She trains three nights a week and especially loves to fence with and encourage young teens who are new to the sport.
"I tell them I can beat them now, but in three months I won't be able to touch them," she said. "I used to be a teacher, and I love watching people develop new skills, whether it's a young athlete or a person on my staff."
Before she started fencing, O'Leary hadn't traveled much and had never even seen Charlotte. "Now I'm at a tournament almost every other weekend and have been to Sacramento [Calif.], Reno [Nev.], Denver, Richmond and Pittsburgh."
She loved learning the sport, but competition was new to her. When O'Leary was growing up, there weren't many opportunities for girls to compete in organized sports, so she wondered how she'd react to having people cheer for her and whether it would be distracting.
"It feels great," she said. "I don't fear losing. I just don't want to disappoint my coach."
Although the schedule can be tiring — she also sings in a choir and visits with her grandchildren on nonfencing nights — O'Leary said that the sport has improved her health. She's lowered her blood pressure and cholesterol levels, has fewer asthma attacks and has gone from a size 14 to a size 8.
It's also a good release from her job as clinical nutrition coordinator. O'Leary oversees a staff that is charged with getting maximum nutrition (sometimes intravenously) into children who are fighting disease or undergoing chemotherapy treatments.
"[Patients] are so sick, and you have to get creative to keep these kids nourished. It's very stressful, but I like what I do," O'Leary said. "Fencing is a great physical stress-reliever and a chance to interact with kids who are healthy. It makes me think about what my patients might do when they are better."
Fencing has led O'Leary to explore another aspect of her job. "I also got interested in sports nutrition and discovered a lot of similarities in the metabolic changes between athletes exercising and our PICU [pediatric intensive care unit] babies, whose bodies are working as hard as if they were running a race."
The exercise has increased her endurance both on and off the job. At 65, she plans to keep working for several years and then work part time after she retires.
As for fencing, O'Leary said, "I'll continue to compete nationally and internationally as long as it's fun, and I'll compete locally as long as I can drive."