On Point

Some people need time to figure out what they want to do. They meander and dabble until they land on something. But for Anne Cebula ’20, there was no equivocation, no trial and error. She knew her calling from the moment she watched the 2008 Beijing Olympics at just 10 years old from her home in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.

“I saw fencing for the first time, and I just fell in love. This is unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” she recalls. “And I remember I saw it, and I said, ‘Well, I want to do that. And I want to do that there.’”

In March, USA Fencing announced that Cebula had been selected to the U.S. Olympic Team in women’s epee. This summer, she will head to the 2024 Paris Olympics — a goal she has worked tirelessly to achieve since she first discovered the sport on the international stage 16 years ago.

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It isn't a surprise that she made the cut. She has been breaking records and winning championships since she became part of the Columbia Lions fencing team. Cebula — who is currently ranked No. 2 in the U.S. and No. 27 in the world in epee — was a member of the World Championship Epee Team in 2023 and took gold in the individual North American Cup in October.

As a Barnard undergrad, Cebula contributed to the overall success of the Lions. She won the NCAA Individual Epee Championship in 2019, making her the first Barnard student-athlete to win an individual NCAA title in any sport. She was also the first women’s epeeist to take home the NCAA crown for the Lions. Cebula earned All-America honors twice during her career and helped the team win an Ivy League Women’s Championship and the NCAA combined title in 2019.

Despite her impressive track record, Cebula is unusually self-effacing. Michael Aufrichtig, head coach of the Lions fencing team, credits this humility for helping to shape her into the competitive athlete she is today. “I’m not sure if Anne ever realized how good she actually is … and that’s not a weakness,” says Aufrichtig. “But I saw some quote [that said], ‘Even those who are the best are always training like they’re not’ … and that drove her even more.”

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‘Girl With the Fencing Bag’

The 2008 Beijing Olympics marked a turning point for Cebula. She became laser focused on learning how to fence. The spectacle of the event might have been what initially drew her in, but it was the art of the sport — the physicality, the technical skill, and what she describes as the “opera”-like emotion — that made her want to pursue fencing. “It’s dangerous, but there’s a ballet aspect involved. It is super athletic.”

After some research, Cebula told her parents about a club and a summer program where she could learn. These were all expensive options, and her parents weren’t convinced that it wasn’t just a passing phase, so they told her to wait.

Years later, when it came time for Cebula to choose a high school, the decision was a no-brainer. She opted for Brooklyn Technical High School because it had great academics and “they had a free fencing club, and I was like, ‘This is it. I need to do this,’” she says. “‘I’m gonna be captain by the time I graduate.’”

Cebula emailed the coach the first day of high school, and he told her to come on by. There was a mix of levels, she says, and the coach deliberately didn’t open the equipment closet until late spring. Without the allure of using weapons, the group thinned out over time. “All he did was make us do footwork, footwork, footwork,” she says. “It was like, ‘Oh, you want to fence? You have to wait.’ I waited.”

By the end of the year, 10 people were left on the team — including Cebula. During the summer, she attended a fencing-focused day camp where she had the chance to compete in a small tournament. She won, earning her coach’s high praise and her parents’ support. She continued to participate in local competitions and build her skills. But she wasn’t able to compete in national tournaments due to the high costs, which put her at a disadvantage for college recruiting. By the time she was ready to apply to schools, coaches told her it wouldn’t be possible without a national ranking. So when Fordham University offered her a good financial package, she accepted — even though the school didn’t have a fencing program — with a plan to transfer out.

“And I was like, I’m gonna fence for one more year. If I can’t transfer out to Barnard, my dream school, then I’ll quit fencing,” Cebula says. “And so at Fordham, I was just the girl with the fencing bag.” 

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Competitive Edge

Cebula first crossed paths with Coach Aufrichtig around 2016 at a tournament where Cebula, competing for the Fencers Club, went up against New York Athletic Club, a highly competitive fencing program that produces Olympic medalists and national champions and where Aufrichtig is chairman.

“So we’re going against the Fencers Club with some very strong women epee, and there’s this tall, skinny young girl, who happened to be Anne Cebula, and we’re like, ‘We don’t even know who she is, but we got to beat her, right?’” he recalls. “And Anne beat us … so after that, we invited her to come train with us at the New York Athletic Club.”

Aufrichtig saw Cebula’s potential. But she hadn’t previously been on his radar for recruiting. Then one day, he got an email from her that she was applying to transfer to Barnard. “I ran over to Barnard. … I didn’t have any more recruiting spots, but I just wanted to put in a good word. Of course, she had great grades and did well at Fordham,” he says.

At Barnard, Cebula, a neuroscience and behavior major, split her time between labs and practice, coursework, and competitions. It could be hectic, but she was thrilled to have a place as a walk-on on the team. “It was nuts, because I don’t think people realize how prestigious or high level this team is — like, I had teammates who were [trying to qualify] for the Olympics at 18 or 19 years old,” she says.

Outside of college, fencing is an individual sport, and being on a team drove her to work even harder. “It helped that I was a transfer because I didn’t understand the gravity. I was just kind of like, ‘I get to go to NCAA and I can’t let my team down. I need to win as much as possible.’ I was just so happy to be a part of the team.”

Throughout her career, Cebula has specialized in epee, which is one of three disciplines in modern fencing that are differentiated by the weapon. (In addition to epee, there’s foil and sabre.) Each uses a different blade and has different rules. With epee, the target area covers the entire body from the mask down to the feet. “There’s a lot more cardio, which is why everyone kind of has a distance-runner build,” says Cebula, who fits that description at 5 feet, 11 inches.

Although her height is certainly an asset, it is Cebula’s mental fortitude and technical precision that has made her into such a powerful athlete.

“I will say that the way she fences is very on point…. She is able to put blinders on and really focus on each touch very intentionally,” says Aufrichtig. “One big aspect of fencing is you have to be present in the moment — and that is definitely one of her strengths.” 

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Olympics and Beyond

Cebula’s senior year — and season — came to an abrupt close when COVID hit. Upon graduating, she mapped out a four-year plan to get to the Olympics. But seeing how quickly things can get upended, she wanted to balance out the training with other goals. During this period, she completed a remote postbaccalaureate program for medical school and worked as an administrative assistant for Dr. Lorraine Chrisomalis-Valasiadis ’83, an OB/GYN. She also signed with Elite Model Management and worked in New York, Paris, and London.

Meanwhile, Cebula kept training and competing. Her ranking improved. “Every tournament, I was kind of learning more and more about myself — how to be an international athlete. So things like how to adjust to the time zone really quickly, how to adjust if you get sick from food poisoning, how to pack,” says Cebula. “So that kind of felt like my training-wheels period.”

Gradually, Cebula ramped up training to five or six days a week. To get into optimal shape, she has worked with coach Sergey Danilov as well as a personal trainer. When the Olympic qualification process began, she decided, "I am all in.”

“I’m either going to the Olympics or not, but I’m retiring after this,” she says.

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Competing at such a high level requires a large financial commitment, from training to travel and entry fees. In some countries, fencing programs are government funded, but not in the U.S. Cash prizes for tournaments are modest (and often nonexistent) compared with major sports like tennis. Cebula hopes that after she retires, she can help “make fencing more accessible” and increase its visibility.

“A big chunk of my journey and story is I put it off because I couldn’t do it [financially],” she says.

So when Cebula set her sights on being an Olympian, she knew the 2024 Olympic Games was her chance. In March, she got news that she’d qualified. “Twenty percent of me was overjoyed, and 80% of me is like, ‘All right, get back in the hamster wheel, we’ve got a tournament,’” she says.

Cebula says that when it comes to bouts, she relies on muscle memory. Some countries have certain fencing styles, but it comes down to feeling out competitors. Even with the stresses of competing, she finds joy in the whole process. Today, she feels “more motivated than ever.”

“I’m going harder in my trainings because I want to end on a good note,” she says. “I mean, the note is going to be good anyway because we’re ending it there.” 

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