{"id":680822,"date":"2025-12-01T15:39:57","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T20:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=680822"},"modified":"2025-12-01T15:39:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T20:39:57","slug":"review-fall-2025-jackie-hsiao-fencing-junior-olympics-680822","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/review-fall-2025-jackie-hsiao-fencing-junior-olympics-680822\/","title":{"rendered":"Good sport: Fencing club president Jackie Hsiao \u201927"},"content":{"rendered":"

The third-year anthropology major fences her way to the Junior Olympics.<\/h2>\n

Jackie Hsiao \u201927 took a stab at fencing during a summer camp before she entered eighth grade. She hated it. \u201cIt was hot and sweaty, and I didn\u2019t know what I was doing,\u201d the Milford, Connecticut, native says. \u201cAll the kids were beating me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Reluctantly, she stuck with the sport when school started that fall. Her older brother, Timothy, was on the school team, so Jackie joined to make car pickup easier for her parents. \u201cThe environment was so much better than at camp,\u201d she recalls. \u201cThe team became my family, and I fell in love with the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fencing is a combat sport featuring sword fighting, where competitors try to score points by landing their sword on the opponent\u2019s \u201ctarget area.\u201d It requires patience, balance, mental toughness, and physical stamina.<\/p>\n

Hsiao (pronounced like the first syllable of \u201cshower\u201d) says her skills improved greatly thanks to the coaches at Hopkins School, a college preparatory school in New Haven, Connecticut, and a personal coach. She improved so much that this past February, she was invited to compete at the Fencing Junior Olympics<\/a> in Charlotte, North Carolina. While she didn\u2019t approach the winner\u2019s circle, it was a major accomplishment for someone whose sporting career was nearly derailed toward the end of her senior year of high school.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Jackie
TARGET PRACTICE:<\/strong> Jackie Hsiao lands her sword on teammate Ana Luciano \u201927 during a practice session in Spurrier gymnasium. (Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hsiao was leading her opponent by one point in the waning seconds of a state championship match, and the opponent was desperate. \u201cHer coach told her to charge at me, and I tried to back up defensively,\u201d she says. \u201cI planted my right knee at the wrong angle and tore my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament).\u201d<\/p>\n

Hsiao won the match but lost nearly a year of competitive fencing. By the time she was cleared to compete, she was a first-year student at URochester, where she majors in anthropology and takes vocal lessons at Eastman. She joined the fencing club<\/a>, attended practices, and eventually competed for the team. Last spring, Hsiao was elected club president and led a full men\u2019s and women\u2019s team to the United States Association of Collegiate Fencing Clubs Championships<\/a> in State College, Pennsylvania\u2014a first for the organization.<\/p>\n

\"Fencer
FAMILY TIES:<\/strong>Jackie Hsiao has been fencing since middle school, when she joined her older brother on their school team. (Ä¢¹½´«Ã½ photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hsiao is a student of the game. Her mother records all of her matches so that she can watch them and learn from her mistakes. She\u2019s interested in a career in medical law and believes fencing offers life lessons that have prepared her for the arduous journey ahead. \u201cIn fencing, you\u2019ve got to be ready for anything, because every opponent has a different style and mentality.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

While at the Junior Olympics, she met two fencing idols: three-time Olympic women\u2019s foil gold medalist Lee Kiefer<\/a> and college All-American Maia Chamberlain<\/a> of Princeton University. This summer, Hsiao competed at the Summer Nationals<\/a> in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Again, she didn\u2019t chase gold, but the experience whetted her appetite for the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersistence is the key, and losing is one of the best ways to learn,\u201d she says. \u201cMy goal is to earn a rating from the United States Fencing Association<\/a>. To do that, I\u2019ll need to achieve victories in their competitions. I\u2019ve set my mind to it.\u201d Allez!<\/i><\/p>\n

\n

This story appears in the fall 2025 issue of <\/em>Rochester Review<\/a>, the magazine of the Ä¢¹½´«Ã½<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The third-year anthropology major fences her way to the Junior Olympics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":672,"featured_media":680852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41112],"tags":[37032],"class_list":["post-680822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-the-magazine","tag-student-life"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGood sport: Fencing club president Jackie Hsiao \u201927<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The third-year anthropology major at the URochester fences her way to the Junior Olympics.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/review-fall-2025-jackie-hsiao-fencing-junior-olympics-680822\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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