Laura Wetzker is a female épée fencer currently studying in Germany and competing for the German national team and Bayer Leverkusen. The young athlete is coming off winning to two gold medals at German national tournaments, and gave an insight on her disciple and goals for the future.
After winning two gold medals in the last two weeks, Wetzker explained how these tournaments can prepare a young fencer for international competitions.
“At these [national] tournaments, usually there are international competitors, and if there are some, it usually prepares you well for the bigger international competitions. Because then international fencers who come over the ones you would face at World Cups. The last tournament was similar in that regard, because there were fencers from Switzerland, from Belgium and from Austria.
“But if there aren’t many international competitors, then usually there are younger fencers, or ones from my training group. Those competitions aren’t necessarily are on the same level in terms of preparations as if there were internationals, because we would do the same in training as in a competition like that, since we are fencing against the same people.”
However, she also underlined that there are better possibilities to test your skills and get some experience in an international tournament ahead of a World Cup. “Because of the tournament setting, these competitions are good for getting some experience. But it is not as good as travelling to a competition right before a World Cup. Those competitions can prepare you better than the smaller German ones.”
The goal of reaching the Olympics
While the qualification for the teams’ épée tournament in Paris can only be secured during the spring of 2024 through the world rankings, Wetzker explained the German team’s chances as of now.
“To qualify for Paris as a team seems unlikely at the moment, because we had to start to build a completely new team from scratch since the beginning of last season, as two great fencers left. One retired and other changed her nationality, therefore, we have a really young team.”
She also believes with time, she will have the necessary experience and will be able to reach a different Olympic Games in the future.
“It is a goal to qualify for an Olympic Games one day, but fencing and moreover the épée discipline is something you must be mature enough for, as it is quite rare that someone young is ranked so high. In our discipline, I think in the Top 16 of the world rankings, everyone is older than 26-27. So it might be something that I would have to wait for, but it is definitely a goal.”
The difference between individual and team competition
While fencing is an individual sport, there is great importance in performing as a team as well. Wetzker explained the difference between two disciplines, and what value a team tournament has.
“In team competitions, you have to be more tactical and prepare better, because at the World Cup events, you can see your route on the bracket and who you would face, and then you can set the ideal line-up of who can do well against which opponent, who goes last, who goes first, because these decisions all influence the final outcome.
“In an individual tournament, you don’t know who you might come up against, because you will only find out your round robin group on the given day, and then based on that the bracket will be created.”
