For the last two weeks, Newton’s own Dynamo Fencing Center has been hosting youth members of the Ukrainian National Fencing team, arranging for their stay in the United States this summer, where they had significant fencing success as well as respite from the war. Local club members noted that these players’ lives have been stressful since the war broke out, and the girls have said that sleeping in the dorms with the other kids here is the first time they have slept through the night since the war started.
Some of these fencers have trained at Dynamo for several years and have returned for this visit. Coach Alex Kushkov of Dynamo Fencing Center has worked with some of the Club’s members to provide housing and scholarships for young fencers over the last few years, and two of the girls on the national team have recently been accepted to attend an independent school in the area this year.
“Since the war started, I have offered to the Ukrainian National Federation to help with relocating young fencers to the U.S. We have hosted nine so far,” Kushkov said. “We are contacting schools directly. Usually tuition is covered by school scholarships, and [other major expenses] covered by private sponsors. Dynamo provides training and living expenses, helping with travel and attending competitions.”
For two weeks, these Ukrainian athletes participated in the American Fencing Alliance International Summer Camp, held in Hoosick, NY, where they engaged in pre-season play and had a chance to compete with the national fencing teams of the United States, Greece, and Canada. By all accounts, they fought well.
In the words of the Ukrainian team’s head coach, Artem Skorokhod of Mykolaiv, Ukraine, the girls “destroyed” their Greek opponents, and narrowly beat members of Team USA, which, since late 2017, has been considered the strongest fencing team in the world.
As the head coach of the Ukrainian national fencing team, Skorokhod is responsible for acting as a kind of sports manager, organizing the best possible composition of team members so that they are physically and mentally prepared for competition.
The athletes, he says, are already coached on a regular basis by personal trainers from their respective clubs in Ukraine – in Odessa, Mykolaiv, Kyiv, Cherkasy, and the Khmelnitsky and Tangovsk regions – where they have each undergone 5-6 years of rigorous training.
In qualifying for the Ukrainian national team, they have already stood out significantly from their peers.
Grueling Training
Junior fencer Daniil Skorokhod, who is a Ukrainian champion and prize-winner of the European Cadet Cup, was able to qualify for the Cadet national team of Ukraine two to three years before some of his competitors. “It was a difficult transition,” he said, with “lots of pressure.”
Ukraine holds a national fencing competition every year, in which the best fencers and coaches are invited from across the country for ten grueling days of general physical training, technical and tactical training, and psychological preparation. In the Cadet category, only the top 3 performers at the national event are selected for the team, while the team’s Junior slots are filled by the top 4 performers.
Once on the team, the fencers’ diverse personalities and fighting styles are put to work, with a very wide range of further intense training. But according to Junior fencer Viktoriia Korotchenko, “Somehow, it all works out.”
“We train twice a day. And after that we have our studies, which we somehow try to pair with the physical exercise,” she said.
Korotchenko has been fencing for most of her life and is a bronze medalist at the European Championship, a World Cup champion, and a Ukrainian champion. She attributes her successes to hard work and consistent motivation by her coaches, both at the national team and at Newton’s Dynamo Fencing Center, led by head coach Alex Kushkov.
Korotchenko’s national teammate, senior fencer Yelyzaveta Melnychuk, has also been fencing for quite a while. Also a European Championship bronze medalist, she says that many of the training exercises, though tedious, are necessary for success.
“It’s important to practice with the footwork, so you stay on a strip and do advance, retreat. It’s kind of boring, but you have to do it every day to improve yourself and your footwork,” she said.
Melnychuk also underscored the mental aspect of fencing and fencing training, stating that the sport is “rather like chess,” requiring quick thought and action.
Anna Suvorova, Junior fencer and European Championship bronze medalist, agrees with her teammate on the significance of strategic thinking to the sport, and said that the psychological factor of fencing in particular is what had her hooked from an early age.
“I really like how I can compete with an actual person in front of me, because I like to play games with people. It’s really interesting for me and it’s not only physical, it’s more mental for me. I really enjoy it,” she noted.
Rewarding Success
Both physically and mentally, the young fencers of the Ukrainian national team have demonstrated an immense aptitude for their sport. Together, the group has won dozens of national and international awards, and triumphed over countless opponents.
The girls’ victory over the U.S. team this summer, says Junior fencer Andrii Slastin, was especially impressive.
“The hardest team to fence against is the team of the United States of America,” he said. “They really are a powerful opponent because they have many strong coaches who are good at teaching strategic, technical, and physical skills.”
Slastin placed 18th in saber at the U.S. national championships this July, made top 32 at the Junior World Cup in Boston, and won third place in the team event in Gdala, Hungary.
For Cadet fencer Kateryna Nedopaka, the war made winning awards in fencing an unlikely prospect. After the invasion, Nedopaka and her family relocated to Sweden, where there were no fencing clubs dedicated to her specialty, saber fencing. As a result, said Dynamo head coach Alex Kushkov, “she couldn’t actually continue to practice,” and fell behind.
Due to the efforts of the Dynamo Fencing Center in bringing her to the U.S, Nedopaka has been able to demonstrate her potential at the international fencing summer camp in New York, where she made the top eight in one of the competitions.
Andrey Sarkanich, a Fig City News student reporter, will be a senior at Newton North HS this fall.
Ed. Note: We have updated this article to include Dynamo Head Coach Alex Kushkov’s comments about arranging housing and scholarships for Ukrainian student fencers.
