Palmer setting sights on Olympics

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This article was published 16/06/2015 (3929 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Charleswood local is pointing her sword towards the 2016 summer Olympics.

Daria Jorquera Palmer, 27, has been fencing out of the Lightning Fencing Club (790 Honeyman Ave.) in Wolseley for 17 years. She has been a member of the national team for 12 years and currently fences in the senior women’s epee category while coaching a variety of youth and adult classes at the club.

“I loved Robin Hood and Zorro since I was a child,” Jorquera Palmer said. “I always dressed up as them for Halloween and then one day my dad told me it was a sport, so he brought me to a few different clubs and I joined.”

At the 2015 Senior/ Veteran National Championships held on May 16 in Richmond B.C., Jorquera Palmer was pushed out of the final match by a national teammate of hers,
Quebec’s Malinka Hoppe Montanaro.

“There were about 40 fencers from across the country and I went all the way to the semifinal then lost 15-13,” Jorquera Palmer said.

It had been two or three years since she’d faced off against this particular competitor and since it was a direct elimination match, her second ranking after the first round didn’t help her stay in the competition. After scooping up the bronze medal at nationals, Jorquera Palmer set off to compete in an Olympic qualification competition in Rio a week later.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t get as many points as I wanted to get there but it was a good step moving forward for the next qualification, which will be in October in Italy, I think just outside Milan.”

She stands 5-2 and competes in a style of fencing where most of her competitors are 5-9 or taller. She said her strategy is to wait for the person to attack and then counter those
attacks as she is very aggressive but also very defensive.

Jorquera Palmer has competed in Rio four times now and this time managed to score second-best out of the seven girls who attended. She says it has been her dream since she was a little girl to compete in the Olympics, an opportunity that presently hangs in the balance.

“It’s kind of up in the air, it really depends on the U.S. right now,” says Jorquera Palmer. “If they stay in the top four, that means they will get a top four spot and our zone is open. So if we come second to the U.S., our team will get to go.”

Only one team per zone is permitted to go to the Olympics and the zone Canada falls in is looped in with 16 other countries competing within North and South America. The exception to the rule is if a country from the zone places top four in the world, it allows a spot to open up for the second team in the region.

“So nine teams in the world get to go and the last Olympic round I think we were 11th or 12th, so we were right on the cusp,” Jorquera Palmer said.

While its extremely difficult to qualify for the Olympics, she feels the Canadian team is really strong right now and has a good shot at going if the U.S. remains in the top four.

Jorquera Palmer is the only fencer on the national team from Manitoba. She says she wouldn’t be able to compete at this level if it wasn’t for FB Hospitality, particularly Prairie 360 restaurant, as they’ve helped sponsor many of her international competitions and fees this year.

“Even though I’m on the national team and I’ve been on the team for 12 years, I’ve had to pay for every single competition I’ve ever gone to,” explains Jorquera Palmer. “It’s really difficult as an athlete to have to pay for that so any support that we can get from anybody really, really means a lot just because we have to work so hard for it.”

For anyone looking to support Jorquera Palmer’s Olympic endeavour, she has set up an aeroplan miles donation page at beyondmiles.aeroplan.com/eng/charity/717 to help her attend qualifying competitions around the globe.