SPECIAL QUALIFICATION: Susie Scanlan, second from right, and Maya Lawrence, second from left, celebrate this spring after they qualified to represent the U.S. in epee at the upcoming London Olympics. Scanlan took a hiatus from her Princeton University career midway through her junior year in 2011 to concentrate on making the U.S. Olympic team. Lawrence, a 2002 Princeton alumna, will be competing in the first Olympics of her career. Scanlan and Lawrence will be joined on the U.S. epee squad by Notre Dame alumna Courtney Hurley with Hurley’s sister, Kelley, serving as an alternate. (Photo Courtesy of Princeton’s Office of Athletic Communications)

Susie Scanlan still has three semesters to go before graduating from Princeton University but her U.S. passport is totally marked up and in need of an insert.

For St. Paul, Minn. native Scanlan, that predicament results from being a fencing prodigy who has been competing on the international level since she was a sophomore in high school.

In a few weeks, Scanlan will be taking part in the grandest world sporting event of them all as she represents the U.S. in the epee at the London Olympics.

Scanlan’s journey to London started with a trip around the corner from her Minnesota home.

“I thought it would be cool to do swordfighting,” said Scanlan, who was inspired by dueling scenes in the movies. “I looked in the phone book and found a fencing club 10 minutes away.”

Scanlan took up the sport at the Twin Cites Fencing Club when she was nine years old and was competing by the time she was 12. An early breakthrough came for her when she placed in the top 8 in the epee in the U-12 division at the nationals.

By the time she was a sophomore in high school. Scanlan was competing
overseas in such far-flung sites as Budapest, Hungary, Leipzig, Germany and South Korea.

“It opens your eyes to how hard you have to work to be good,” said Scanlan, reflecting on how fencing at the international level impacted her development.

Working with coach Roberto Sobalvarro at the Twin Cities club helped open Scanlan’s eyes to her potential in the sport.

“Ro has been my coach for a very long time; he taught me fencing,” said Scanlan.

“When I started, he was the national epee coach for the 2000 Olympic team. He took a break and came back for the juniors and is now back with the senior team. He is very good.”

The presence of Zoltan Dudas as Princeton’s fencing coach helped influence Scanlan to head east for college.

“When it came to choosing college, coaching made a difference for Scanlan. “I knew I wanted to go to a top school, I had Zoltan as a coach at the Notre Dame camp and I liked his coaching style,” said Scanlan, who was also looking at Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Penn State. “When he became coach at Princeton, I thought that would work.”

“The international competition helped prepare me but the NCAA is a different format and I had to adjust,” said Scanlan. “Fencing on a team is different.”

Scanlan also had to get used to juggling international competition with her Princeton fencing and academic schedule.

“It is a long season; I was still competing in junior and senior events,” said Scanlan, who earned All American honors in her first two seasons at Princeton. “I traveled internationally during exams and went to nationals another year.”

Midway through her junior year, Scanlan decided that if she was going to have any chance of making the London Olympics, she would have to take a hiatus from Princeton.

“By the end of my sophomore year, I was really burned out,” said Scanlan, who started out in the Class of 2012 and will resume her studies in January 2013. “I was not getting enough sleep. If I was going to focus on the Olympics, I knew I had to take a leave.”

Since leaving Princeton in early 2011, Scanlan has split her time between St. Paul and New York City when she is not in competition. The focus on her sport had the desired effect. “My fencing has gotten a lot better,” said Scanlan. “I had to do 13 events to qualify.”

Boosted by a big performance in Budapest, where a 16th place finish in a Grand Prix event moved her up to third in the U.S. rankings, Scanlan booked her spot for London.

Even when Scanlan realized that she had mathematically clinched a berth on the team, she had trouble believing her Olympic dream was really coming true.

“After the last World Cup event in March, I knew from the points standings that I had qualified,” said Scanlan.

“In April at the nationals, they told us officially. To be honest, over the last year and a half, I didn’t think I was going to make it. I have a big family with 35 cousins and they kept asking me about it and I would say it is going fine and change the subject. After I made the team and started thinking about the things that go along with it, I was like holy crap, this is really happening.”

One thing that has gone along with her Olympic qualification is some intense training.

“When I am not in competition, I am training five-to-six hours a day, including conditioning, drills, and everything,” said Scanlan, who will compete individually and in the team event for a U.S. squad that also includes 2002 Princeton alum Maya Lawrence.

But as Scanlan looks ahead to London, she knows that hard work is only one ingredient to potential success.

“I need to get a lot of sleep the week before, getting power sleep of 10-11 hours a night,” said Scanlan. “Being happy also makes a big difference. When I am rested and happy, I tend to do my best.”

In assessing her  Olympic prospects, Scanlan acknowledges that her event is a bit of crap shoot and she could benefit from some divine intervention.

“It depends on the given day,” said Scanlan. “I will be focusing on fencing the best I can and hope God will speak to me on the day of the competition and the points will be mine.”