Fencing is a simple sport, if you ask the Lee sisters. 

“We will try to cut you before you cut us, plus some rules,” the three siblings joke. 

The trio, Candice, Jolie and Lee Kar Moon, have been fighting it out for quite some time, but not in normal sibling quarrels. Instead, the three duke it out in the fencing arena as part of Fencing Singapore’s female sabre team—competing in what some call the fastest combat sport on earth. 

Fencing has been part of the Olympic Games since the modern era began in 1896, and according to an examination by Red Bull the lunges these athletes make to land scoring blows can be faster than the acceleration of a race car. The sport is so old there are carvings in a temple in Luxor (a city in southern Egypt) depicting fencers duelling as early as 1190 BC, and further evolved into a form of military training before it gained popularity as a sport in the 17th and 18th centuries. 

It has evolved quite a bit since those early days. There are three main weapon categories in modern fencing—the Epee, Foil, and Sabre—each with their specific attacking styles, grips, weights, and valid targets on an opponent’s body. The foil and épée thrusting weapons. A foil fencer can only attack the torso of their opponent, whereas an épée combatant can attack their opponent’s entire body. Sabre, which is the weapon of choice for the Lee sisters, is both a cutting and thrusting weapon, allowing for a wider variety of attacks. In sabre fighting, opponents can attack the entire upper body (except the hands), but unlike foil fighting, the action continues if a fighter makes contact outside of the scoring area, making the matches more action-packed. 

“If you are watching for the first time [sabre] fencing will look more impressive,” she said. “They move up and down the piste a lot more, the action is faster and there is more movement in general.”

The competition area, called a piste, is 14-metres long and just 1.5-2-metres wide, forcing fencers to lunge laterally at one another to land scoring blows and quickly jump back to evade oncoming attacks. The small competition strip makes matches fast and explosive. The Lee sisters take tailored strength and training programs to target specific physical weaknesses and fine-tune their tactics through lessons four-to-five times per week.

“It requires both brains and brawn. It is not just a sport where the strongest or fastest wins,” Jolie said. “Of course if you are not strong that will have an effect on your game. For me, timing, tempo, and how you execute the actions matter a lot. I actually try to do things a bit slower to catch my opponents off guard, and kind of pull them into a trap.”

“For Kar Moon and I, we do things a bit faster,” said Candice. “We like to go for more explosive actions, but we are still trying to catch our opponent off guard, like Jolie said.” The sport is, however, accessible to all ages, skill levels, and physical abilities. Fencing Singapore launched a wheelchair fencing program in 2019 to praise from the IOC.

Candice Lee competing at the 2017 Thailand Open Fencing Championships in Korat, Thailand.
PHOTO: FENCING SINGAPORE

Fencing is played as both team and individual contests. Individual bouts have three sets of three-minute rounds, and the competitor with 15 points or the highest score after three rounds wins. Team bouts have three members a side (plus one alternate), and compete in nine sets of three-minute rounds with the first team to 45 taking the win. All three of the sisters started fencing as their Secondary CCA in school (Candice being the first, then Kar Moon and Jolie), and have competed both on teams and individually.

“Fencing on the same team with both my sisters made the sport fun and less stressful. [If we are competing individually] it’s not such a fun experience to compete against each other,” Kar Moon laughed. “If we do, we want to meet in the semi-finals so we can podium together. We still have a sense of camaraderie. We want to do well together.”

But the sisters insist there are no hurt feelings when the clock hits zero—they leave their battles in the gym and arena. 

“Unless we are talking about tactics or training, we try not to talk about fencing that much and don’t really have quarrels,’ said Candice. 

The sisters say their short-term goal is to qualify for the SEA Games as siblings and win gold. They also aim to qualify for the 2022 Asian Games and be the first women’s sabre team to represent Singapore. 

Fencing Singapore is situated in the OCBC Arena in the Singapore Sports Hub. Learn more here.