Bhavani Devi’ the first Indian fencer to represent our nation in Tokyo Olympics. She won her first gold medal in the sabre event of the Turnoi Satellite Fencing Championship held at Reykjavik in Iceland 2017.
India hopes for its first-ever Olympic in fencing is allowed to rise because of Bhavani Devi . Tamil Nadu-born Devi has been a consistent good fencer and her recent flourish at Fencing Sabre World Cup in Utah where she finished at the 38 position.
“Till I won that gold medal (in Reykjavik) no one knew much about fencing, no one cared much about my performance other than the people very close to me. I used to travel alone without any coach,” said the 26-year-old sabre fencer. I cannot forget that moment. I was alone and I couldn’t share that joy with others but that competition was a turning point for me and for fencing in India'' said by her.
It was not easy for her in the beginning, it was quite difficult without no role model . In India there is lack of knowledge about sports, number of experts and coaches are few. Her family friend questioned about what kind of sport is this or are there any jobs in this. After all these complication she faced this all by support of her family.
Sports Authority of India (SAI) Sagar Lagu coached her , she did her training from SAI academy in Thalassery, Kerala. At that time Devi was in 10 standard in Chennai.
There was a time when Bhavani was almost ready to quit ,she knew she had to train outside India to make any headway in the sport, but she had no funding to support her training. Her family spent already a lot but still the equipment expense is so high & for her organizing expense was like a burden for her, almost in 2013 she quitted the sport.
At Go Sports Foundation scholarship programme she got selected and that changed everything. In 2016, she shifted to Italy and began the next step of her evolution as a fencer. After that there is now turning back.