DUELING IN RIO: Princeton University fencing star Katharine Holmes ’17 takes a break from a workout in the Tiger fencing room at Jadwin Gym. Holmes is competing in the epee for the U.S. at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Last Saturday, she fell 5-4 in overtime to Erika Kurpu of Estonia in the Round of 32 in the individual epee competition. Holmes has another shot at Olympic glory as she will be competing in the team epee finals on August 11 along with the Hurley sisters, Courtney and Kelley, both former Notre Dame standouts. (Photo Courtesy of Princeton’s Office of Athletic Communications)

As Katharine Holmes looked ahead to making her Olympic debut in the women’s epee last week at the Rio Summer Games, she was bringing a peace of mind into the competition rather than nerves.

“I have seen my path, I am prepared; I feel like I have never gone into an event so prepared,” said Holmes, 23, a rising Princeton University senior who took a two-year hiatus from school to train for her shot at making the U.S. fencing team for the Olympics.

“I don’t feel like there is anything else I could be or should be doing. I am so singularly focused that I know I will be putting my best self out there. Whatever comes may come but I will have done everything within my power to be as ready as possible.”

While the path didn’t lead to a medal in the individual epee competition last Saturday as Holmes rallied three times and pushed her higher-seeded opponent, Erika Kurpu of Estonia, to overtime before falling in a 5-4 thriller in the Round of 32, Holmes has another shot at Olympic glory as she will be competing in the team epee finals on August 11 along with the Hurley sisters, Courtney and Kelley, both former Notre Dame standouts.

“We have had the best season we have ever had, we won two world cup medals,” said Holmes a 5’11 native of Washington, D.C., noting the trio is seeded seventh in the competition with the Hurleys having earned bronze in the team event at the 2012 London Summer Games with Princeton stars Susannah Scanlan ’12 and Maya Lawrence ’02.

“We are constantly having really strong performances so I think that we have a really good chance right now.”

In order to increase its chances, the U.S. team went through some rigorous training at a camp in Houston before departing for Rio.

“We have been watching a lot of video of our opponents and we are really fine-tuning our practice to who we are going to fence,” said Holmes.

“It is a very focused preparation. All of June we were conditioning really, really hard. We did a lot of running, a lot of plyometrics and explosive stuff. It is not building new skills. It is really focusing on the actions that we do best and fine-tuning them.”

In Holmes’ view, keeping focus will be key as she chases a medal in the team event.

“Everybody has the skills but at the Olympics, everybody is going to be nervous because it is such a big stage and it is the competition,” said Holmes.

“Whoever keeps it together and is cool and focused, they are going to win. I think that is the strongest part of my game. I have always been super focused. Even in a stressful situation, I maintain my ability to be very analytical and so I think the Olympics is a tournament that will really play to that strength.”

Having worked out at both Princeton and New York City during her leave of absence from school, Holmes is looking forward to her final season with the Tigers.

“I am excited to come back to the team,” said Holmes, who earned All-American and All-Ivy League honors in each of her first three seasons at Princeton.

“I have been training with the team the last two years. I did miss actually being on the team and competing with the team so that will be really fun to go back and compete with them next year.”

Holmes, a psychology major who aspires to attend medical school, plans to keep competing internationally after graduating from Princeton.

“I am going to go for 2020 in Tokyo, if it works out well,” said Holmes “During my time off I worked in the Princeton Neuroscience Institute and a lot of the research that I am doing won’t be publishable for another three or four years so the timing of my research works out really well with the timing of the next Olympics. My current plan is to matriculate to med school in the fall of 2020 right after Tokyo.”