Fencer Sara Balzer is the big favourite in the sabre event.
She is one of the French delegation’s great chances of winning a gold medal in these Paris 2024 Olympic Games. With her impressive physique and her great height, Sara Balzer knows that she has a date with history. Silver medalist in Tokyo in 2021, she keeps her feet on the ground. “At the top? I’m not an Olympic champion, not a world champion, I haven’t reached the top yet.”
It was at the age of 8, when she saw her older sister practicing this sport that she wanted to get started. “I immediately liked sabre. It’s the fastest weapon, which requires you to be very dynamic, tactical and combative. I like to engage in a match with anger. I discovered that I was a bad loser!”, she confided to Madame Figaro.
In terms of her achievements, she won the team gold medal at the French championships, before winning individually in 2017. A rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee broke her momentum, forcing Sara to take a one-year break: ” It’s a year of rehabilitation, and at least a year to get back to your level and no longer be afraid. “, she explained to France Bleu. She came back stronger and won gold at the Summer University in Naples in 2019, then the same medal at the World Cups in the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons. Her victory in sabre at the 2023 European Games took her to first place in the world rankings.