The fencer Der Hecht will compete for the last ticket to Paris: “I will give everything that it will be me”

The Dakar fencer, Der Hecht, will open the European criterium competition in Luxembourg next week, where she will compete against fencers from all over Europe for the last ticket to the Olympic Games in Paris. “It’s a competition in which anything can happen. The one who hopes to be the best and not be stressed by the situation is the one who will take it. I’ll give my all for that to be me,” says Hecht in an interview with ‘Davar’.

Unlike the Grand Prix or World Tour competitions where between 150 and 200 fencers compete for the tournament win, in the European Criterion competition only one fencer can be sent from each country and only if that country has not already secured its place in the same category for the games in Paris. “In the end it’s a very small competition, these are the athletes who didn’t enter and that’s only one from each country,” says Hecht. “I come to this competition with the same ‘mindset’ that I came to some of the last competitions. They were all competitions with a very heavy weight.”

Hecht comes to the competition ranked 112th in the world. The top competitors in the competition will be Pauline Brunner of Switzerland (33rd in the world), Alexandra Ehler from Germany (49th in the world), Alexandra Perdescu of Romania (68th in the world) and Emma Franson of Sweden (73rd in the world).

“There are some fencers that I pay more attention to and I will prepare for them more personally, that I already know over the years from the round,” says Hecht about the competitors she will meet. “This is going to be a competition with a very young average age (21), compared to the previous years where there were very experienced competitors.”

The 23-year-old Hecht started her career in the sport at the age of 9. “I was an athlete from a very young age. I tried team sports like basketball. I wasn’t good at it, but I think individual sports are more suitable for me,” she admits. “My mother found fencing in a catalog of classes in Tel Aviv, I got there and had a very good connection with the coach (Doron Levitt) who is still my coach to this day. I think the connection with him was what kept me there, in addition to the friendship and the fact that this sport is very interesting.”

Der Hecht with coach Doron Levit (photo: Bizzi team)

Her first international achievement was at the cadet age, when she won the World Cup round competition in Slovakia. “Over 300 fencers participated in the competition. It was my breakout competition,” says Hecht. “That’s where I really understood what I’m capable of. In the girls’ age group I was fourth in the world, I took fifth place in the World Championships for girls and twice fifth place in the European Championships for girls.”

“I always knew I would make that leap”

The peak moment of her career, she reached two years ago, with the win at the European Under-23 Championship in Estonia. “I was happy to reach the stage where I took a medal at the European Championships. For me, it was a glass ceiling that I couldn’t break in the girls, but I didn’t give up. I always knew that I would make this jump. The title of European Champion is something that adds a lot to my self-confidence for the rest of the way, and it reminded me that I In the right place and that’s what I want to do.”

Her next goal was to climb the Olympic rankings for Paris, but that’s when she injured her knee, underwent surgery and began a long rehabilitation process. “Last year was a difficult year for me. I was injured in September and I didn’t know if I would be able to fence that year,” says Hecht. “I had surgery in April, when I miss a few months at the beginning of the Olympic race. I took the risk and told myself that I would come back in better shape than before the injury. I shortened the rehabilitation and returned in July. It was a very challenging year during which I continued the rehabilitation.”

Hecht did not give up and managed to make a comeback from the movies. Due to the late start, she had to chase the entire criterium period after Jana Botvinik, who led the ranking among Israeli fencers. Only in the last competition did Hecht manage to overtake Botvinnik with a dramatic photo finish, when the two Israelis are tied in the Olympic rankings at 112 and 113 in the world.

“We competed among ourselves to see who would be the highest ranked in the Olympic rankings,” says Hecht. “Yana led the entire race and in the last competitions I was able to narrow the gaps. In the last competition I overtook her by 0.25 ranking points.”

The fencer Der Hecht (right) during a battle (photo: Bizzi team)

How did you mentally prepare for this, to make the change in ranking in the last competition?
“I just tried not to think of it as a super important competition that will determine who will fly to the Criterion competition, but simply a competition that I have to bring myself. If I fence well in every fight, I will be able not to stress about the situation and bring my fencer. I went up a level, I fenced against very fencers good in the last competitions. This is what gave me the confidence from competition to competition that I am on the right path.”

What needs to happen for the next Olympic campaign to have a strong women’s team competing for the criterium?
“I think we need to build a much stronger base, take 4-5 fencers and just compete with them in every competition there is and not make a random team every time. We need to train much more together, which is difficult because two of the girls (Yana Botvinik and Nicole Feigin) are studying in the USA. And budget us more.”

In recent years there have been a lot of achievements in the industry among girls, how can the sequence of achievements be taken for adults?
“There needs to be continuity. Many times there is no continuity between the girls and the adults, because there is not enough support. The scholarships are not high. There is no reason for female athletes who can move to the US and receive free education and the college experience, to stay in Israel when they do not receive financial support here.” .

“It was clear to all of us that this was his day”

The fencer Yuval Freilich promised that the fencing branch will have representation in the Olympics for the first time since Beijing 2008. Freilich won the Grand Prix in Doha and secured his place through the world rankings. Hecht saw the exciting moments of the competition together in a special screening they did at the fencing club in Tel Aviv.

Fencer Yuval Freilich, Israel’s representative in Paris 2024. “I hope that his success will increase our budgets and that there will be more representatives in Paris by his side” (Photo: Federico Gambarini/dpa Reuters)

“We were all in the club together,” says Hecht. “Everyone talked about this competition as a competition in which he must bomb, because otherwise the race is already starting to run away from him. From the first moment he looked like a fox. When he beat the French Roman Cannon, the Olympic champion from Tokyo, in the round of 16, it was clear to all of us that this was his day. When he won, we understood To have a representative in Paris, it was still unofficial, but from the statistical calculation there were not many chances that someone would overtake him.”

With an optimistic view of the future, Hecht hopes that the successes in recent years in combining Freilich’s operation with the Olympic Games will continue the positive growth and development of the industry in the near future. “In recent years, there has been a crazy increase in our achievements and professionalism in the industry. Many thanks to Sasha Ivanov (team coach), who created a national home for us in Wingate and took us to joint training camps. The investment of all of us as a team is finally coming together and with its help we can reap the fruits. I also hope that it will increase We have the budgets and that we will have more representatives in Paris alongside Yuval.”