Ellen Geddes said wheelchair fencing opened so many opportunities for her after a car crash left her with a broken back

Paul Valencia
ClarkCountyToday.com

Ellen Geddes took to her new sport immediately, even if she claims she was not very good at it

“I did a lot of losing before I did any sort of winning,” Geddes said.

Now, she is one of the best in the world at what she does.

Next month, she will be on the world’s biggest stage, too.

Geddes will represent the United States — and Clark County, too — in wheelchair fencing at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. This will be her second appearance in the Paralympics after competing in Tokyo in 2021.

Geddes is from South Carolina and still lives there for much of the year, but she also spends about half the year living in her home in Vancouver. That gives her easy access to train with her coach Justin Meehan, owner of Orion Fencing in Orchards.

She first met Meehan when he was a referee at a match. Later, they started working together. Geddes and Meehan had a connection.

“I continued training with him because his coaching style just kind of meshed really well with my learning style,” Geddes said.

That connection is working. Geddes did not have the performance she wanted to have in Tokyo. In fact, while she qualified for those games, she acknowledged that she still had doubts about her abilities. 

Today, with Meehan’s coaching, the 36-year-old Geddes is at the top of her game. She said the last three years have been her most successful. 

Geddes is preparing to compete in two individual events and two teams events at the Paralympics.

“I’m very much coming back to the Games in Paris with an expectation of being more successful than I was in Tokyo,” she said.

Later this month, Geddes and Meehan and the rest of Team USA will be off for Paris. 

Clark County residents can give a salute at a Paris Send-Off Party and Foil Walk-n-Roll Tournament at 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3, at Orion Fencing, 13504 NE 84th Street in Vancouver.

Another U.S. fencer, Byron Branch of Ohio, also travels to Vancouver to train at Orion. He will not be in town for Saturday’s event. Still, the fencing club from Clark County is proud to be part of the journeys for two para athletes.

Geddes has always been an athlete, competing in equestrian.

A car crash in 2011 changed the trajectory of her life, but her calling as an athlete continued. Just in a different sport.

“I didn’t know fencing existed before I broke my back,” Geddes said.

Geddes was in rehab at the Shepherd Institute in Atlanta, and there were opportunities to try a number of different sports. The wheelchair fencing team was there one day.

“The team captain asked me if I thought it would be fun to stab people, and I said yes,” Geddes said.

“I was not initially successful,” she said. “I continued working and trying to get better at it, and it took a long time.”

It takes a long time to excel, but it does not take much time at all to try, Meehan said.

“It’s a great first rehab sport. You can start fencing at the beginning of your rehab. As soon as you learn the mechanics of your new existence you can start,” he said.

Geddes turned her focus into becoming the best she could be in the sport. And the sport has given back, as well.

“Fencing was the opportunity to find and see the world again. I don’t think I necessarily would have realized how much of the world was still available to me had I not started fencing. Our competitive circuit is international,” she said, listing a number of countries she has competed in through the years. 

“So many places that I hadn’t been to before I was injured and I certainly would not have had the impetus and the push to go and do it by myself without having fencing. Knowing … the world is still available to me is a huge benefit from fencing.”

Fencing, it should be noted, can be a sport for all.

At Orion, Meehan and staff train and coach athletes of all abilities and ages. Orion, a nonprofit organization, has been open for 10 years. The club has coached children as young as 4, and the oldest first-time athlete at the club was 93. There is a 78-year-old who comes to the club regularly.

“For too long fencing has been treated like a country club sport,” Meehan said. “Yachting and equestrian are super expensive because you need a boat and a horse. But fencing got lumped into that, and it didn’t need to be. It isn’t expensive.”

Meehan has been in the sport for 42 years, starting when he was 12 years old. His public high school back east had a fencing team. He said he would love to have clubs in local high schools.

“It’s not dangerous,” he said. “It is one of the … safest sports in the Olympics.”

Sure, it looks dangerous. But the protective gear is top-of-the-line and the athletes have an understanding of safety.

“We get normal exercise injuries. Strained shoulder. Sprained wrist. Normal, kids-running-around injuries. We rarely get blade injuries,” Meehan said.

While it is a combat sport, the competitors are not separated by weight classes.

“We don’t split by weight because we don’t fight for power. We fight for skill,” Meehan said.

Fencing, he added, is not hard. 

“Like any sport, being great at it is really hard. Being competitive at the highest level is really hard.”

But just the act of fencing?

“It’s really easy to play. Two kids, two sticks sort of thing,” he added.

Orion Fencing provides the arena and the training.

“We’re trying to get fencing to everybody in Southwest Washington,” Meehan said. “There is no reason a person who wants to come in and try this can’t try it.”

Beginners at Orion Fencing also might get the opportunity to meet an internationally recognized athlete, right here in Vancouver.

Geddes and Meehan will be traveling to Paris on Aug. 25. Geddes will compete Sept. 5, 6, 7, and 8.

Geddes also is looking forward to being there on Aug. 28.

“It is a wildly motivational moment to be with everyone on Team USA heading to the opening ceremonies,” Geddes said. “It is a great way to start a sporting competition and to create some internal motivation for success.”