This nearly 100-year-old CT club is resurging. It provides mental and physical outlet. And swords

Nearly 100 years ago, the Hartford Fencers Club was a source of pride, and Manchester resident Madison Fournier is hoping to bring it back to its past glory after it fell off the map for decades.

Fournier’s mission is to make Hartford a destination for fencing again and to be “a home for scholastic and collegiate programs across the region, a youth development program serving Hartford children and a community that connects the sport’s next generation to a history most people in this city don’t know exists.”

Reviving Hartford Fencers Club has been something Fournier, the club’s current executive director, has been researching for years.

Fournier was looking in the Hartford Courant archives for articles about the Hartford Fencers Club dating as far back as 1928. On Feb. 13, 1938, the Courant ran a full-page photo essay titled “Enthusiasts of the Hartford Fencers’ Club,” which showed Hartford Fencers Club members preparing to meet Harvard’s varsity team at the Hotel Bond Ballroom in downtown Hartford.

In 1942, the largest fencing tournament ever in Connecticut was held at William Hall High School in West Hartford, sanctioned by the Amateur Fencers League of America. It drew 69 competitors.

She also learned that the Hartford Fencing Club had a successful women’s team dating back to the 1930s.

“Hartford was a serious fencing city. We are in the process of reviving it,” Fournier said.

A new outlet

Fournier, who is originally from the Midwest, first learned of fencing as an adult.

“I had a couple of kids, and I was looking for some new physical outlet to give me some time out of the house. I was looking for something more physical than just the gym,” Fournier said.

The 38-year-old initially came to Connecticut through Teach for America. She taught science at Fred D. Wish Museum School in Hartford from 2011 to 2013. After her tenure with Teach for America was over, Fourier went to school to become a nurse and worked at Hartford Hospital, then transitioned to being a nurse for the Hartford HealthCare at Home program.

“I fell in love with the city and my husband in Hartford and he anchored me to stay here,” Fournier said.

Fournier began fencing with the Enfield Fencing Club in 2022, and now she’s a co-owner of the club.

“I fell in love with the sport,” Fournier said. “It is truly an incredible sport that you can do at any age, and you can do it as long as you want to do it, which was kind of my requirement in finding a new sport.”

Fournier found instant success in the sport, qualifying for nationals in Phoenix, Arizona in her first season in 2023.

Last year, the family moved to France from January through April 2025, as Fournier trained and competed at the world class level. According to Fournier, it was “a formative experience, fencing every day in a country where the sport has real cultural weight.”

She is currently coached by Hervé Bidard, the 1988 Olympic gold medalist in Seoul, and plans to compete again under Bidard later this month.

Since 2023, Fournier also started to attend fencing coaching clinics and coached 6-year-olds at the Enfield Fencing Club. She studied at The Athena Project in Portland, Oregon, under İpek İrem Ülkü and Ola Shelton, a four-time Olympian from Poland. She also completed the Coaches Academy through the U.S. Fencing Coaches Association. Fournier made her international coaching debut, independently, at Junior and Cadet Worlds in Rio de Janeiro this past spring.

Fournier has brought İpek İrem Ülkü aboard as the Hartford Fencing Club’s director of athletic standards and high performance. Ülkü is an assistant coach at Brown University.

“We’re so thrilled to have her support as we develop the coaching network within Hartford. Hartford has had this for nearly 100 years, it’s just gotten a little bit lost. We’re looking to bring it back and really give it the strength that it needs to keep going,” Fournier said.

The club is in the process of becoming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and also is searching for a dedicated fencing facility in the Hartford area, which will be equipped with six full-length competition pistes, professional scoring equipment and the complete infrastructure that competitive fencing requires.

Fournier said she recently visited a property for the potential future home of the Hartford Fencing Club. It is important to her that the property is in the Hartford metro area because she wants it to be accessible to Hartford residents and youth.

“We are in the process of getting our 501(c)(3) registration and we are looking for donors and people who want to be a part of restoring this,” Fournier said. “We want to do this the right way and honor the people who have been a part of this history.

Next steps

There are currently 16 fencing clubs in the state, according to the Connecticut Division of USA Fencing.

“Most of those clubs are located on the shoreline and closer to New York City, which is natural because New York City is a huge fencing hub,” Fournier said. “Us being in Enfield, there are a few other clubs around, but we still find ourselves being kind of an island. … Especially away from those on the shoreline and like Fairfield County that have never experienced or heard about fencing.”

“My vision for this is that Hartford Fencers Club becomes a central hub between New York and Boston. That not only do we have world-class coaches in fencing and a facility,” she added.

Fournier said Phase 1 of the process is developing the high school level of fencing and beyond.

“HFC’s Phase 1 mission is building institutional relationships, serving as a facility and development partner for schools and colleges across the Hartford region rather than a traditional membership club. That means providing the infrastructure, the pistes, the scoring equipment and the programming support that individual schools cannot afford to build on their own,” she said.

“Through the Hartford Blade program, we are going to subsidize youth programming for Hartford kids 10 and up. We’re looking at $200 for like an eight-week session as an intro in the sport. They can come and take some fencing classes, learn a new sport and if they like it, then we will have a development beyond that,” she added.

She’s hoping to draw all children, including those that don’t enjoy other sports but want something that will challenge themselves mentally. She said there’s a lot of untapped potential in an area that is “near and dear to her heart.”

She’s looking to draw from schools including Glastonbury, Wethersfield, Manchester, South Windsor and West Hartford, who have never had access to the sport and hopes the Hartford Fencing Club will “remove the barriers that typically prevent schools from launching new programs.”

“Fencing is a very individual sport,” Fournier said. “It’s a very mentally challenging sport. We are looking for those kids who like to play chess or checkers or even some of the video games where you really have got to think and it’s not just being physical. Those are great and we definitely will have those kids, too. But I think that we can expand. Fencing expands like the sports arena even further.”

Phase 2 is private membership for those who want to come in and join the Hartford Fencers Club community.

As far as a timeframe as to when the club will be up and running, Fournier said it depends on getting the 501(c)(3), asking for grant money and finding the right space. She said the goal would be to be in the building and running a summer program by this time next year.

Fournier noted that there is momentum around the sport with Trinity College recently announcing a varsity fencing team.

“Trinity College is elevating its fencing program to varsity status with a launch anticipated in 2027 and supporting that program is one of HFC’s central goals,” Fournier said. “The documented connection between Hartford fencing and Trinity dates to at least 1972, when Gerald Pring, Trinity’s fencing coach at the time, was simultaneously operating the Hartford Fencing Club through the Hartford YMCA.

“We are actively working to establish a formal facility partnership with Trinity’s athletics program, and we see that relationship as foundational to what HFC becomes. Nothing is finalized yet, but the intent and the history are both real,” Fournier said.

Fournier is hoping to connect with Hartford’s fencing roots and is asking that anyone who fenced at the Hartford YMCA or the Hotel Bond Ballroom through the Hartford Fencing Club, or at Trinity between the 1920s and 1990s email hartfordfencersclub@gmail.com.

“This history belongs to Hartford, and we are trying to find the people who lived it,” Fournier said.