Tension hangs in the air of the hall of the Grand Palais. All are silent among the 8000 in attendance, save for two, adorned in white. Shoes squeak across the piste as the clank of steel rings out across the crowd. On the right is Vivian Kong Man Wai of Hong Kong, number one seed at the Olympic Games here in Paris. Having won gold at two World Cups and a Grand Prix in 2024 alone, she is the clear favorite among the field. On the left, Auriane Mallo-Breton of France. Despite having the home field advantage, at seed number six she is decidedly the underdog in this matchup, though one would hardly think it looking at the scoreboard. At 7-1 in her favor, Mallo-Breton is dominating her rival with only half of regulation remaining. However, the tide is about to shift.

Anyone who has played or even spectated sports for long enough has no doubt heard the word “momentum” being tossed about. Even on the Olympic broadcast the commentators use this term as if it were a tangible object the competitors could reach out and grab. For as long as this term has been used its existence and authenticity has been questioned. Some studies and experts suggest its existence, while others attribute it to mere superstition. But like a placebo, the word “momentum" has very real implications on player psychology. It worms its way into their psyche, whether they like it or not. When momentum is behind one’s back, when all the chips are making their way to that side of the table, they can feel as if they could do no wrong. Success begets success.

On the other side of the coin, when one feels momentum pulling away it’s as if trying to maintain one’s grip on a greased rope. It is the loss of one’s foundation, the ground upon which one must stand. Regardless of its authenticity or not, momentum and its implications have long been within the zeitgeist of competition and are almost certainly here to stay. As such, today we will take a look at this Olympic finals matchup and the lessons that it shows in the importance of momentum in competition.

Nudging a Wrecking Ball

In physics, momentum is the product of the mass and velocity of a moving object (p=mv), but we are more concerned with momentum on a larger scale. In a macro sense, momentum refers to streaks. In our case we will refer to momentum as a continual positive winning streak. Like we mentioned earlier, success tends to lead to more success. This may be partially due to experience, but there is a biological basis behind this phenomenon as well. When we win, a considerable amount of testosterone and dopamine is released into the brain, encouraging further winning. This is what is referred to as the winner effect. Continual winning leads to the development of a positive feedback loop, or a system where the product of the process further propagates itself. Ergo, winners stay winning.

On the flip side, a loss will also lead to a higher likelihood of losing future contests. Blind studies have been run, randomly selecting winners and losers independent of how the participants actually tested and scored. Randomly-selected winners had significantly higher scores in the next phase than their losing counterparts. This implies that there is a link between past and future successes and losses beyond simply reassessment of one’s approach. We will revisit this idea of feedback loops later down the road, but for now it is important to understand that they are a reappearing pattern in the many structures that make up competition.

“Épéestimology”

Before we deep dive into our featured matchup, we must first familiarize ourselves with a few basic rules of fencing. Fencing is the modern practice of sword fighting that has been gamified for the modern era. Combatants are armed with a blade and aim to land hits on their opponent while avoiding getting hit in the process; pointy tag, if you will. Fencers have available three disciplines named after the swords themselves: foil, sabre and épée. All three weapons differ in composition with adapted competitive rulesets to match their sword, but they all share the same basic goal: hit the opponent first. In our category of focus, épée, matches consist of three 3-minute-long periods with a 1-minute break in between. In épée, the first competitor to reach 15 points becomes the victor. If neither competitor has reached that threshold by the end of regulation then the competitor with the higher point total is declared the winner. In the result of a tie, a 1-minute overtime round will occur.

Bouts take place on a piste that runs 14 meters long and between 1.5-2 meters wide. It is important to understand that fencing takes place in a finite space; if a combatant decides to continually back up to relieve tension they will eventually run out of room. If they fully retreat off the piste their opponent receives a point. Thus, fencing not only becomes a battle to control the combative range, but also for space on the piste.

Let us quickly differentiate what separates épée from the two other disciplines. Fencers can score in all three by stabbing the opponent, though the amount of pressure required to score varies from weapon to weapon. Unlike sabre and foil, where fencers must hit certain scoring zones on the opponent, the entire body is a valid scoring target in épée.

“Fleching” Out the Matchup

Now that we have covered the basics, we will take a look at how Mallo-Breton and Kong have matched up in the past. Before their Olympic bout, the two have locked blades in FIE tournaments six times since 2012. In their first three bouts, Mallo-Breton (then “Mallo”) won each. In their first encounter at the 2012 World Cup in Leipzig, Mallo eked out a close 4-5 win. The next two matches took place in 2015 at the World Cup in Buenos Aires and the World Championships in Moscow, both ending in a decisive 5-1 score for Mallo. These bouts were pools matches early in the tournaments and as such were only run to 5 points. Mallo winning all of these limited score format matches is an important distinction compared to their remaining bouts.

Their next encounter would be their first meeting in almost four years in the finals of the World Cup in Havana in 2019. Both women would be coming off solid victories in their semi-finals match, with Kong besting Italy’s Nicol Foietta 15-7 and Mallo trumping Korea’s Young Mi Kang 15-9. Unfortunately, as far as this writer is aware no footage exists of this tournament and as such we cannot pick apart each individual play. Regardless, Havana marked the first time that Kong would win in their rivalry; a decisive 15-8 routing.

Later that year Kong would mirror her success at the Épée Grand Prix in Cali, Colombia, defeating Mallo earlier in the bracket in the Tableau of 16. Matchups are often heavily influenced by past contests between competitors, and as such we will look at the interactions between the two in this match.

The first exchange was initiated by a Kong attack, countered by Mallo displacing her body backwards and scoring. This point was achieved by being mobile; we will revisit this point. The next exchange was both fencers choosing the same options, though they both fell short and traded follow-up attacks, resulting in a double hit.

A tie, or double hit, occurs when both contestants’ blades find a valid target within a certain window of time. In épée the two hits must occur within 1/25th of a second. How ties are scored varies between épée and its contemporaries. In foil and sabre the winner of a double hit is determined by a process known as “right of way” or priority. In épée, however, this priority system is completely absent. In the case of a double hit both fencers would be awarded a point. If one fencer is at 14 points, a tied interaction would result in that fencer immediately winning the bout. This means that strategically as the fencer in the lead it is often in one’s interest to force ties. With each point interaction the relative weight of individual points becomes more and more valuable. Ties at the beginning of the match with a one point lead may seem inconsequential, but when the opponent is at 12 or 13 points and has the lead, for example, it is most likely in their best interest to try to avoid trading if at all possible. 

The next several interactions were also initiated by a Kong attack, which precipitated in-place interception attempts by Mallo. Because these interceptions are stationary and carry no momentum they are sometimes slightly too late to score, but by and large will result in a trade rather than an outright win. After this point, Mallo attacks and is successful, taking the lead. Kong shoots a fleche down the middle and Mallo once again trades. Her next trade attempt is unsuccessful and the score is tied right before the end of the first period. Mallo decides to attack again, as her previous attempt was successful. Kong hits a rare prime parry and hits an incredibly tricky riposte to Mallos leg to steal the lead heading into the next period.

Period 2 starts familiarly with two Kong attacks and two Mallo interception attempts; one trades and the other is unsuccessful. Mallo changes her approach and adopts an aggressive posture, marching Kong all the way back to the end of the piste. This pressure elicits an aggressive response from Kong, to which Mallo is easily prepared for and launches her own attack, beating Kong to the punch. This tactic of using one’s posture to gain space is an important element of general strategy, though it will not be seen much more in Mallo’s arsenal for the foreseeable future.

We then see the same pattern of Kong’s attacks and Mallo’s reactive counters, but she’s falling behind in points. Mallo changes her timing and footwork, aggressing forwards as Kong does. Both attacks land at the same time, Mallo’s to the face and Kong’s to the body. This results in yet another double hit and Mallo is visibly upset. Even through the opaque fencing mask she cannot hide her frustration. Throughout the rest of the period Mallo’s behavior changes. She no longer stands her ground and instead is constantly disengaging. For over a minute, both fencers no longer take any risks and results in a mutual passivity warning for both competitors. Whether or not this was a tactic for Mallo to cool off is pure speculation, but in either case both take the rest of the period off, with Kong up 11-9.

In the final period we see the same old pattern; Kong attacks, and Mallo predictably counters. Mallo looks up at the ceiling in a pose all-too-familiar to those who have competed in any sport before. Ten seconds later and Mallo changes tactics. As Kong attacks, Mallo employs a parry 6 into an immediate riposte on the inside of the line she has made for herself, scoring. Pumping her fist to her side, she pops off, recognizing the adjustment she made.

Redirecting a River

The importance of quickly evaluating the efficacy of strategies and tactics cannot be overstated. Rather than running into the same wall again and again expecting it to turn into a door, one must rapidly recognize that they must take a different approach. Situational awareness plays a key factor here. The competitor must perceive and understand the conditions they have found themselves in. Next, pattern recognition comes into play. Comparing and contrasting the position that they’re in from previous encounters in their history, the competitor must then pull the appropriate practiced technique or tactic gleaned from previous experience for this and subsequent situations. This process of reevaluation and changes to one’s strategy as a result of past experience is most commonly known as adaptation.

Over the years countless adaptation processes have been developed by sport, business and military strategists. One such process that we will quickly go over is Colonel John Boyd’s “OODA Loop.” This phrase is an acronym that stands for:

Observe

Orient

Decide

Act

This process provides a scaffolding for rapid, continual decision-making in real-time encounters, though the same process can be applied to any timescale. First, using one’s senses they must observe the situation. Next, they must orient and evaluate their position within that observed context. Then, a plan of action must be finalized and decided upon. After, the agent must act and execute the finalized decision. This action then leads to a result that once again must be observed, connecting the loop. The OODA loop is not the only such description of this process, it simply is one of the most succinct and digestible. Whatever their process, the competitor must practice and drill their decision-making process until it becomes second nature. The faster that a competitor can cycle through their decision-making process the more efficiently they can make decisions. When a competitor’s process fails to loop or if an opponent’s process is faster, then exchanges will continue to be lost. When several exchanges are lost in a row, then a streak will be formed and momentum will be gained. Thus, it is imperative that competitors recognize these swings as early as possible and nip the problem in the bud, lest the opponent’s momentum snowball to too great a size that it becomes a Herculean task to stop.

Having made the adaptation to not immediately go for the double hit and instead parry, Mallo settles down and the two fencers go to the line for the next point. Both fencers move in and out of range when suddenly Kong attacks again. As her previous tactic in this situation was successful, Mallo goes back to the well. Unfortunately for her, Kong’s adaptation is simply faster. She reads the parry, goes for a circle 6 to redirect and score her own riposte. Mallo is again visibly shaken.

“Inconceivable!”

There is a concept that permeates fighting games that helps to describe this interaction dubbed yomi. Yomi, Japanese for “read,” can most easily be illustrated with the simple game of Rock, Paper, Scissors as a metaphor. If an option is strong in a given situation we will equate it to playing rock. In yomi terms we would refer to this as layer 0; “rock is strong so I will play rock.” In RPS, rock has a direct counter in the form of paper. If a competitor anticipates that their opponent will play the theoretical “optimal” option in that situation, then they can make the read and play the equivalent paper. This would be yomi layer 1; “I know rock is strong, and as such I will play paper.” Once again, another layer forms. If a competitor is representing rock, then they can make the counter-read that their opponent will want to play paper. In this case, they opt to play scissors. This becomes layer 2; “I know you think I will play rock. Instead, I will play scissors.” Finally, this Sicilian mental gymnastics culminates in an irony; rock once again becomes strong, looping layer 3 into the fold of layer 0.

This same form of RPS can be applied broadly across most adversarial competitions. From the pitching of baseball to the betting of no-limit Texas hold’em, these same loops show up again and again. When the number of options exceeds three this results in slightly more complex gametrees, therefore resulting in more layers of yomi. In fencing, this concept is mirrored in some schools by the tactical wheel. Layer 0 is a simple attack. Layer 1 is parrying the simple attack and following with a riposte. Layer 2, then, is a compound attack. Like Kong, it involves anticipating the attempted parry and hedging one’s bets by feinting or usage of a prise de fer, maintaining blade contact. Layer 3 is a counter attack, or calling the feint’s bluff. This is Mallo’s habit; the sight of Kong’s aggression leads to this consistent knee-jerk reaction to attack or force the double. At this point a simple attack executed fast enough becomes Layer 4 and the loop connects yet again.

Kong reading Mallo’s shift in tactics as quickly as she did is incredibly impressive in a sport as fast as épée. Following this interaction, Kong times Mallo's probe and as she retracts her blade, countering to the leg. Falling back to old habits, Mallo stands her ground and tries to catch Kong's approach. As the leg is closer than the torso, Mallo's reactionary double habit is exploited and her point is too slow to register in comparison to Kong's leg attack. Head snapping up in the air, she turns around and walks towards the end of the piste, knowing that the match has quickly slipped out of her hands. 14-11 with two minutes to go, Mallo chooses caution. She cannot afford a trade or she will lose the bout. After thirty seconds of passivity she dares approach. Kong is there to meet her. She forces the double and the bout comes to an end.

A Cut Above

Their last matchup before this year’s Olympics occurred in 2022 at the World Cup in Tallinn, Estonia. Kong would score the first point of the bout with a parry into a riposte. Mallo would then fire back with two consecutive points, intercepting Kong’s attack with a jab to the wrist and a lunging fleche. They would then go on to trade points back and forth, with Kong mostly scoring on the attack and Mallo still looking to intercept, even three years later. Mallo then takes the lead with two consecutive parries, an adapted strategy she had only shown at the end of their previous encounter in Cali. This defensive success, however, did not deter Kong from her offensive strategy and she would continue to press and score with a lunge. The period ends in a tie and we move on to the next.

Mallo, once again utilizing her parries, scores two consecutive points. Once again, undeterred, Kong lunges and scores. Mallo falls back to her old habit and they trade twice, though as she is up in points it’s generally in her favor to do so. However, Kong bangs out four points in a row all off offensive actions. First a compound attack, then a simple lunge, then punishes two of Mallo’s searches with direct attacks splitting her timing once the score is tied. She pulls ahead, 8-10. Mallo at the end of the period changes her look. She goes for a cross step, but instead of attacking she beats Kong's blade with a parry 4 and follows up, scoring in the process.

As the last period starts, Kong fleches and they yet again trade. Kong reads Mallo’s attempt to break up the pattern and intercepts Mallo’s own attempt to fleche back, pulling further ahead. Kong then pulls the same trick that Mallo did at the end of the second period, aggressively cross stepping and hitting Mallo’s blade out of line, almost with a feeling of “anything you can do, I can do better.” If we were expecting anything different after this point in the final moments of this match, then we weren’t paying attention. Kong attacks, Mallo trades. Again…and again…and again. The match ends 15-13 and the competitors have now tied up their record to three wins apiece.

Adapting in short matches is far more difficult than longer ones. A longer time constraint gives competitors more time to play around and experiment with different tactics. The differential between Kong’s consistent losses in shorter, first-to-5s versus these three first-to-15 bouts is a clear indicator of this, though to be fair there are countless other factors that could be playing into these contrasting results as well. 

Flipping the Script

This leads us back to the Olympic finals bout between Mallo-Breton and Kong, the proverbial rubber match, if you will. Starting the bout both fencers spend the first minute prodding at each other’s guard, to which they both receive a passivity warning. Thirty seconds later and the drought is ended by Mallo-Breton threatening Kong with a lunge, to which Kong withdraws towards the back half of the piste. Utilizing Kong’s attempt to regain her footing, she perfectly times another attack, beating Kong’s blade and scoring the first point of the bout.

One thing to note here is that in comparison to their last match up Mallo-Breton has become more willing to back up in an attempt to control the range. When Kong aggresses Mallo-Breton reacts much better than she has in the past, floating backwards and immediately threatening with a lunge. Kong starts to threaten forwards and rather than go for the immediate intercept. The Frenchwoman gracefully floats backwards, looking for Kong to overextend. She does just that, going for a lunge to the leg and Mallo-Breton’s retreat allows her to punish Kong’s overextension with a counter over the top. The matchup has changed.

They both continue to cautiously poke and prod at each other’s guard, a far more careful approach than their previous encounters. Mallo-Breton suddenly lunges and catches Kong who tries to intercept her approach with a counter to the mask, but Mallo-Breton’s lunge low-profiles the counter and nets her a point. Whereas Mallo-Breton was the one to freeze and try to intercept Kong, now Kong is the one holding that position; the roles have been reversed. She recognizes this, and in the dying seconds of the round attempts to parry. However, the approach proves too fast for this and the period ends with a perfect 4-0 for the hometown hero.

Thirty seconds into the second period and Kong goes for an attack. Mallo-Breton, too, moves forwards and they trade. Kong then attempts a parry 4 on Mallo-Breton’s blade, who full-sends a fleche and follow-up that further increases her lead. Shortly after, Mallo-Breton takes the initiative, launching an attack. Kong tries a different approach here, mirroring her opponent’s second point and fading back to attempt to punish the whiffed attack. When she comes back in, however, her opponent’s épée is there to meet her. The Frenchwoman fistpumps as the crowd roars in support. At 7-1, she has all the momentum on her side; Kong is being run over. When Mallo-Breton turns back around from her celebration, Kong is no longer there to meet her at the piste.

Ebb and Flow

Whenever the opponent’s momentum is too great, competitors need a way to halt it. Patterns of continual losses must be interrupted; any seasoned competitor knows this. When a player is running hot, it is a good idea to try to cool them down. This is often called icing out an opponent. There is, of course, no guarantee that this tactic will always work. Different types of people will react differently to this interruption. Some may even flip the script and take the sign of an opponent attempting to ice them as a show of desperation.

When an athlete is continually successful this creates a positive feedback loop that often leads to high-level athletes entering what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi famously dubbed a flow state. Due to its cyclical nature, flow requires a certain rhythm of novel information to be maintained in order to continually strengthen one’s sense of self. By “self,” we can liken it here to “confidence.” This self then directs one’s attention, which in turn continues to shape oneself in a continual loop until the cycle is broken.

Any disruption of the rhythm of this feedback loop introduces what Csikszentmihalyi refers to as psychic entropy, or a force that threatens to impair one’s sense of self. Thus, when an opponent is put on ice it is likely that their attention strays from novel information that is pertinent to their current success and may wander instead. In the European Journal of Neuroscience, Dimitri van der Linden, Mattie Tops and Arnold B. Bakker wrote upon the experience of flow disruption in their paper “Go with the flow: A neuroscientific view on being fully engaged.” They write,

“[Flow disruption] is accompanied by a reduction in task focus and increased distractibility . . . The task disengagement, accompanied with the higher arousal, will probably induce self‐reflection and in that case, [unfocused wandering] may become more active again. Although, in principle, such reflection can be positive or negative, in case of a task that is too difficult, the reflection often becomes manifest in an increase in worrying.”

When an athlete is in flow, they execute techniques utilizing what psychologist Daniel Willingham refers to as implicit learning, or largely unconsciously. When athletes become self-conscious, they tense up and default to the explicit learning system, where they lose their effortless execution and begin to crack. In layman’s terms, they tend to overthink.

Each sport has its own idiosyncrasies that allow an athlete to try and disrupt their opponent's momentum. In judo, for example, competitors will often take longer than they have to fix their belt and gi in between interactions to take a breather or to put a stopper on an opponent’s momentum. Even in fighting games this can be done by going to the character select screen or taking an extra long time to drink water in between games. 

The most common way that this is done in sports, however, is via a time-out. Not only does the utilization of time-outs allow athletes to take a break, but it also allows them to break up the opponent's momentum. In football and basketball, a few studies have been conducted that demonstrate that calling a time-out suggests a negative impact on the athlete’s performance of an attempted field goal or free throw respectively. This is especially true in time-pressure scenarios such as the last few minutes of a game. When the stakes are high, attention can easily be drawn to the magnitude of the situation. Pressure on performance increases and players are more likely to choke.

In fencing there are no official timeouts, only the time in between each period. What can be done, however, is Kong’s current tactic. Fencing athletes are allowed to switch out their weapon following any given point. They may do this if they feel that it is not the right stiffness, if its integrity is compromised, but certainly what is occurring here is Kong forcing a break in the action. Not only does this serve to halt the hometown hero’s hot streak, but this also affords her an opportunity to reassess the match and how she is approaching it. Now is the time to adapt.

The Pendulum Swings

Until this point Mallo-Breton has largely been the aggressor. Looking back at her successes in Cali and Tallinn, Kong found most of her success by forcing her rival onto the back foot. Now, she is playing a largely reactionary game and is consistently losing exchanges. She must make the switch now. After rooting through her bag for her new blade, she marches back to the en-garde line. The two test their blades and the bout resumes.

Immediately, Kong approaches. She crosses the center line and takes space. With her new, mobile defense, Mallo-Breton willingly backs up and concedes space. Kong crosses her rival’s en-garde line and lunges across the distance. The Frenchwoman goes for a parry but finds her own blade to be knocked out of line; it was a bait! Kong knocks her opponent’s parry attempt to the side and scores her second point of the match. The two reset in the center and right off the jump, Kong again pushes forward, to which Mallo-Breton gives up space. Reacting to a Kong lunge, she forgoes the parry that has served her so well and counter lunges, forcing the double. Unlike their two previous encounters, such a significant lead means that trading is absolutely in her favor. However, this is assuming Kong does not adapt.

“Allez!” the referee calls, and Kong moves in yet again, crossing the center. Mallo now seizes the initiative, lunging forward. Kong anticipates this, going for a circle 6 parry and looping it in over the top to score another back-to-back point. Kong, still pressing, goes for the lunge and Mallo is there to force the double. The last point of the period comes as the result of yet another new look from Kong: a preemptive beat into a parry 8 to close the range followed by a near corps-a-corps exchange. This catches Mallo-Breton off guard, compromising her balance. Kong takes advantage of this with a point-blank riposte to get within three points. Kong spends the end of the period pushing her opponent to the warning line, only to back up due to time being close to expiring. She has made up half of the deficit and the score now sits at 9-6.

Now the final period, with three minutes remaining it’s do-or-die for Kong. She needs to maintain her momentum and continue to ride it to make up the remaining gap in points. For Mallo-Breton, she is only six points away from Olympic Gold in her home country. She has been on the better half of most exchanges, and if that fails she knows that if she can force most exchanges into at least doubles then it will be nearly impossible for Kong to continue to mount a comeback.

Kong continues her strategy and pushes her opponent back with a series of false-entries and feints. Forcing her back onto the warning line, Kong goes for a lunge to the body, to which Mallo-Breton responds with a duck to try to low-profile the attack. The tip of Kong’s épée finds her shoulder and Kong further narrows the lead to two. We are observing a clear shift in mentality from Mallo-Breton, who has adopted a loss-averse approach as opposed to what got her to the dance in the first place: mobile footwork, parries and rushdown offense. On the next play, she is holding her ground quite a bit more, searching with her blade for Kong’s approach, refusing to back up to the warning line again. Kong pokes, to which the response is a lunge from Mallo-Breton. Kong is caught standing still and is forced to go for the double, which lands. 10-8 with two minutes remaining.

Both fencers trade lunge attempts which fall short due to each other’s defensive, floating footwork. Kong then goes for a feint which draws out the Frenchwoman’s attempt to react with a double-hit. In turning the feint into a circle 6, this throws Mallo-Breton’s balance horribly off and the Hongkonger gets outside foot position and scores a short hit to the torso to close the gap to but a single point. She fist pumps and grins through the mask, feeling the momentum shift and Mallo-Breton’s attitude as well.

Four seconds later and Kong goes for another lunge, falling short to the combination of sliding footwork and an outside parry. As the expected riposte comes, Kong hits a similar prime parry to the one she hit in Cali, riding the momentum of her opponent’s blade and from a high-elbow position hitting an inverted downwards riposte to Mallo-Breton’s trunk. The French coach motions for his athlete to settle down but the damage is already done; Kong has manifested the comeback and tied the bout to 10 points apiece.

Ten seconds later and Kong yet again times her lunge immediately following Mallo-Breton’s front foot making contact on the piste, forcing her to yet again go for the double. With a minute and a half left the score is tied 11-11. Both athletes are incredibly tense, and for the next forty seconds or so poke and prod at each other’s defense while not overcommitting into a range where their opponent could realistically hit a Hail Mary lunge or fleche. They both know what is at stake here and do not want to take any unnecessary risks. This careful approach turns into a tacit agreement between the two athletes, stemming from their years of experience on the piste: neither will approach so as to burn a penalty for mutual passivity. This brings the score to 12’s and both fencers silently agree to avoid figuring out who needs to move first and go to overtime.

When the Last Sword is Drawn

In overtime the first competitor to score a single touch wins. In addition, one athlete is randomly selected to receive priority. This means that if the last minute on the clock expires and neither athlete has scored, then the player with priority wins by default. This condition compels the athlete without priority into action. They must either approach or convince their opponent to approach. If neither of these scenarios happen then defeat is certain. A yellow tally lights up by Kong’s name, indicating that she has been granted priority. In a blink of an eye, Mallo-Breton has gone from up by six points and willing to trade to being obligated to approach or risk losing the bout and the gold medal to go with it.

The two rivals reconvene in the center and the clock ticks down. They both stand right on the endpoint of each other’s lunge range and ten seconds in, an attack by Kong is met by the all too familiar Mallo-Breton double touch attempt. They trade and due to overtime the points remain tied. However, despite the score the situation is not even: ten seconds have lapsed and Mallo-Breton is still obligated to approach. In addition, Kong has now gained valuable information: the timing of Mallo-Breton’s in-and-out movement is a consistent rhythm. Kong just attacked at the timing of her rival’s foot planting forward, leaving her in a position to counter as she moved in. The read has been made. Ten more seconds go by and Kong splits Mallo-Breton’s timing, initiating her lunge just after her opponent’s foot started to move back. The green light sparks up and Kong has done it. She has regained her momentum and become Hong Kong’s first women’s fencing Olympic Champion.

Learning: A Strange Loop

And so we come to the end of this event. Kong’s six point comeback is not even close to being the biggest ever at the Olympics. Olga Kharlan of Ukraine even dispatched Choi Se-bin of Korea from a similar differential in sabre just a day later. If one looks into the history of any sport, they will surely find innumerable examples of comebacks far more miraculous than this one. Anderson Silva’s Hail Mary triangle against Sonnen in the fifth round, the Red Sox’s reverse sweep over the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS, Dave Wottle’s 800m finish at the 1972 Olympics, the list goes on ad infinitum. The purpose of this article is not to prop up this bout as one of the great comebacks of these Olympic games, but to instead show us how to recognize and halt seemingly unstoppable momentum that an opponent may bring and learn how to redirect that force to win our future endeavors. Regardless if the reader is a fencer or not, it is this writer’s hope that we all try to learn lessons even from fields that at first glance may seem alien to us. If we learn to look past the aesthetics of each individual sport, we will find the same material components that make up the composition of all competition.

For the learning process is yet another loop: we are taught by those who came before us, practice what we have learned and demonstrate our effort for future generations. It is my hope that together we all continue to watch, analyze and integrate the invaluable lessons that these dedicated athletes have provided to us. Hopefully, we may continue to learn, compete and further provide experience for those athletes yet to compete.

I’d like to give a special thank you to Shaye Whitmer for his expert help with the match analysis and clear explanations of the foundations of fencing. You can find him @ShayeWhitmer on all platforms.

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