How many fencers can you name?
While fencing itself may just be a blur of white and metal to many onlookers, it is a sport of speed, technique, and chess-like strategy.
Fencing techniques are not only used in The Princess Bride or Pirates of the Caribbean, but also by a large number of dedicated athletes aiming to reach the olympic level of the sport.
Jesuit is a high school known for its top notch athletic programs, athletes, and coaches. But in addition to athletes on campus, there have been a surprising number of Jesuit students dominating the strategic field of fencing.
Senior Rayaana Grulich is one such athlete, and has been fencing for eleven years at Oregon Fencing Alliance (OFA), the same place Jesuit alumni and olympian Magda Skarbonkiewicz grew up fencing.
With a love for traveling, proficiency in four languages, and a dual citizenship in the Czech Republic, Rayaana currently fences for the Czech Republic national team. She’s travelled to both China and Turkey for competitions just in the past semester.
Rayaana has placed top ten in the United States three times, competed in Junior World championships, European championships, Junior World Cups, and much more. Now, her goal is to qualify and place in the top eight at the NCAA next year, aiming for the 2028 LA Olympics.
As is any road for athletes, Rayaana’s has been full of potholes, with many twists over her 11 years fencing.
“Ups and downs are a part of sports, a part of life, and they’re never going to go away. It’s not realistic to succeed in something on a linear path,” she says.
She adds that Jesuit has been an aspect of these ups and downs, highlighting that administration is generally less lenient on outside-Jesuit athletes for missing school due to competitions.
“First semester, I was kept from going to competitions because my grades were dropping a little bit,” she says, “for my grades and attendance, I didn’t have the excuse of saying, ‘oh yeah, I had a track meet.’ It’s more like if I fly in from a competition in China and I’m exhausted, but I still have to be in school the next day.”
Additionally, due to the sheer amount of traveling required, Rayaana felt that the expectations put on her as a student and athlete was unrealistic.
“When I wasn’t doing well in classes, it wasn’t because I wasn’t turning in my work, it was because I had to teach myself everything on my own.”
Despite the difficulty, after high school Rayaana is set to fence at Temple University while majoring in integrated genomics with a minor in psychology.
She credits this to the support system build by her parents and friends, adding that she could always rely on them to lift her up after particularly difficult competitions and helping with learning missed material at school
Even though fencing has been a constant presence in her life, Rayaana has found that a great deal of mental fortitude is required in order to keep up a love for the sport through bad performances or periods of injury.
“I’ve gone through waves of hating it, like hating it, and then loving it. It was never consistent,” she says.
“No matter how difficult it may seem, no matter how much time or effort you put into it, always remember it is just a sport and you will never improve at just one pace,” she adds. “It is totally okay to do poorly at one competition and lose all your confidence, then win the next one.”
Rayaana’s mom, an essential pillar of her support system, adds that fencing has not just been a sport, but a lifestyle that has positively influenced many aspects of her life.
“Fencing has taught Rayaana invaluable life lessons, encompassing both triumphs and setbacks. The discipline cultivated is a profound expression of self-love, a quality that will endure throughout her life.”
