American fencer Anne Cebula is currently ranked 27th in the world and 2nd in the United States in her sport. She won gold at the individual North American Cup, competed in the 2023 World Fencing Championships, and participated in the 2024 Summer Olympics. Her professional athletic career is tied to the Barnard College team. Cebula earned “All-America” honors twice, and her team won the women’s Ivy League championship three times.
Her story began while watching the 2008 Olympic Games on television. At newyorka, we share more details about how a ten-year-old Anne Cebula fell in love with fencing and became a professional athlete.
Love at First Sight
Anne Cebula was born in New York City on July 3, 1998. The 2008 Olympic Games were a turning point in her childhood. They were taking place in Beijing, and the young girl was watching the broadcast at home. It was then that she first saw a fencing competition and, in her words, fell in love with the dangerous yet graceful sport.
Naturally, Anne wanted to start fencing immediately. She found a local club and a summer program she could join. However, the classes turned out to be quite expensive, and her parents didn’t support their daughter’s new interest. They thought it would pass quickly and wasn’t worth the expense.
Despite this, Anne did not give up on her dream. When it came time to choose a high school, she picked Brooklyn Technical High School, which had a free fencing club. Immediately after enrolling, Cebula sought out coach Bert Jaged and began training.
She recalled that students with various skill levels attended the practices, and the coach intentionally trained them for a long time without weapons. They practiced their footwork for hours and prepared their bodies physically. Most of the students left the group before ever getting to use a weapon, but not Anne Cebula.
By the end of the year, only 10 people remained on the team, including her. The coach recognized her potential and advised her to join a summer camp. Cebula did just that. It was then she competed in her first small tournament and won. After that, her parents changed their minds about their daughter’s passion and have supported her athletic journey ever since.
For Anne, that journey was just beginning. She participated in local competitions and developed her skills. In 2013, she met coach Kornel Udvarhelyi, with whom she trained from then on. But when it was time to apply for college, she once again faced financial challenges.
Higher Education and Fencing
At that time, Anne Cebula wasn’t competing at the national level due to the high cost of equipment and competitions. The fact is, fencing remains a sport that isn’t very profitable. Prize funds are often small, but the cost of preparing for competitions is significant. This is something Cebula would like to change now that she has become well-known, but let’s return to her college application period.
Getting onto a university team without a national ranking was impossible. Meanwhile, Fordham University, which did not have a fencing team, offered her reasonable financial terms. So, Cebula enrolled there with the intention of continuing to train and transferring to Barnard College after a year.
This was aided by her meeting with coach Michael Aufrichtig in 2016. He saw Anne Cebula at a tournament where she was competing for the Fencers Club against the New York Athletic Club. Aufrichtig was the head of the latter and ran a highly competitive fencing program that produces Olympic champions.
Anne won that day, and Aufrichtig first invited her to train at the New York Athletic Club. When he learned she was applying to transfer to Barnard College, he gave her a recommendation. Thus, another of Cebula’s dreams came true: to get on a university team and reach the national level of competition.
Academics and Athletics
At Barnard College, Anne Cebula majored in neuroscience. She had enough time for everything: classes, lab work, training, and competitions. Outside of college, fencing is an individual sport, so being part of the Columbia University fencing team required extra work and many hours of training from Cebula. She was happy to be part of the team and prepared diligently for competitions, dreaming of victory.
Anne Cebula’s fencing specialty is the épée. This is one of the three disciplines of modern fencing, along with foil and sabre. Working with the épée requires full-body training and significant cardio, which is why athletes often have the build of long-distance runners. Anne Cebula, who is 5’10” (178 cm), also developed the technical precision and mental toughness needed to win. According to her coach, her ability to focus on every single move is her greatest strength.
The results didn’t take long to show:
- Cebula qualified for the U.S. Junior National Team and competed in the Junior World Championships in Italy in 2018,
- in her junior year, she won the individual women’s épée national championship, a first for a student from her college, and contributed to the overall team score,
- the team she was on won the women’s Ivy League fencing championship in 2018, 2019, and 2020.
During Cebula’s senior year, the championship was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the spring of 2020, she graduated and continued her professional athletic career. In 2021, Anne began working with coach Sergey Danilov to prepare for the Olympic Games.
Anne Cebula’s Olympic Journey
The coveted Olympic Games were four years away, so Cebula created a training plan and pursued other activities. She completed a remote post-baccalaureate pre-medical program, worked as an assistant to Dr. Lorraine Chrisomalis-Valasiadis, and signed with Elite Model Management, working in New York, London, and Paris.
Gradually, her training increased to 5-6 days a week. To be in peak condition, she worked with fencing coaches and strength and conditioning trainers. When the Olympic qualification process began, she decided her time had come.
After months of diligent training, in the spring of 2024, Anne Cebula earned the top spot among American women in épée fencing and qualified for both individual and team events. Her results at the Paris Olympics were as follows:
- In the individual competition, Cebula won her first match against three-time Olympic medalist Rossella Fiamingo with a score of 15-14,
- she lost her second match to silver medalist Auriane Mallo-Breton and finished 13th overall,
- in the team competition, she fenced against Poland, where the team secured a victory, but they lost in the overall team event, finishing in 7th place.
But for Anne Cebula, it was a dream come true. Her love for fencing began all those years ago while watching the Olympics, and now she had finally competed in them herself.
Despite her exceptional track record, the athlete remains exceptionally modest. Coach Michael Aufrichtig is convinced that this modesty helped her become the athlete she is today. In his words, “the truly great ones always train as if they aren’t.” These words perfectly describe the talented fencer from New York, Anne Cebula.