15-year-old Needham fencer makes history in Hong Kong

At 15-years-old, Jaelyn Liu has became the youngest women’s foil fencer to win gold at a Senior World Cup.

Liu’s journey from Dallas, Texas to the Hong Kong Senior World Cup was filled with sacrifices that were key to her success.

In Texas, Liu attended the Fencing Institute of Texas which holds foil and empee classes.

After losing her coach, Volodymyr Yefimov, to cancer, the Liu family started to look elsewhere for a more competitive place to train.

Foil fencing has condensed hot spots in the nation, the two largest being California and New England.

“In that year that our coach got cancer, I pretty much took her everywhere in the nation,” said Linda Liu, Jaelyn’s mom.

The Liu family already knew Shaung Meng, a Chinese National Team fencer and the co-founder of Star Fencing Academy, from previous competitions and formed a connection with Meng when Jaelyn Liu was nine.

“First time [I] saw this girl. I know that she can be great and but she was not good. She was not good at that moment,” said Meng.

Meng and her husband, Kai Zhao, another Chinese National Team fencer and the other founder of the Academy, as well as two-time Olympic fencer and Olympic head coach, Tamer Tahoun were all able to help Jaelyn develop her skills.

“We are professional athlete[s] and we know fencing. We know how to train kids to win the game,” said Meng.

When Yefimov first got sick, Jaelyn Liu started taking virtual classes with Meng and then she started to come to Boston four to five times a year.

Meng had a discussion with the Liu family to discuss the inconsistencies in Jaelyn’s training and what the options were to address it.

“‘To help her, you either, to find a good coach there in Dallas, or you have to move to Boston. That’s the only option,’” Meng recalled saying to Jaelyn Liu and her parents.

Following Yefimov’s death, the Liu family decided to buy an apartment near the Academy to continue Jaelyn’s training while keeping their home in Dallas.

“This entire decision to come to Boston was mainly for fencing – was entirely for fencing … So although, like, I don’t enjoy it as much here … I gotta deal with it. I like fencing much more,” said Jaelyn Liu.

This move was only for Jaelyn and Linda as the other half of their family has stayed back in Dallas.

“I have two family locations now, so Boston is my second home. My husband and my older daughter, they are still in Dallas,” said Linda Liu. She later joked that Boston is a “satellite home for us.”

Another sacrifice in the move was Jaelyn leaving The Hockaday School.

“It’s very one of the best all-girls school in the nation,” said Linda Liu. “We have to give up their school and come to here. It’s very difficult decision. Sometimes you have to, you have to choose.”

After the move, the trainings intensed and the results showed it.

In November 2023, Jaelyn Liu competed in Istanbul at the Juniors World Cup. Meng expressed that her goal was for Jaelyn Liu was her to make it to the top-16 or even the top-eight, but she went further.

“She was no name. She has no ranking, no rating, no points, no no nothing. It’s just the kid, you know, went to a competition, and then she won the gold,” said Meng.

Following that success, Jaelyn Liu had won gold almost every month and she has not been slowing down.

“She was the youngest fencer to win division one national champion at the age of 14, and then also was the youngest, 14-year-old, girl won Junior National Champion,” said Meng. “She competed everyone at least six years older than her but she won. She won not only one time, sometimes she won, in one weekend, she won three gold medals.”

Jaelyn Liu expressed her surprised when she won the Senior World Cup gold.

In tournaments, there are two days with the first being preliminaries and the second being the elimination round. For the last two years, Jaelyn Liu has been in a mental block which resulted in her failing to pass in the first round, the round of 64, on the second day. The excitment of breaking this barrier motivated her in the following rounds.

By the time, Liu had gotten to the championship round, she was exhausted from the fast turnaround times, a problem she never faced before. But she pushed through, winning 15-12 to claim the gold over Italian Martina Sinigalia.

“I was just so drained that I didn’t really think about anything,” said Jaelyn Liu. “I didn’t yell. Usually I yell when I win, but I was just so tired. But I was extremely happy once I realized.” 

Jaelyn Liu’s ultimate focus is to fence at a D1 school in the New England area so she can still compete internationally.

“There’s like a lot of pressure for me to choose right now because everything’s about rank,” said Jaelyn Liu.

As a sophomore in high school, Liu has to wait until the summer to abide by NCAA rules. Then coaches can start reaching out to her for the recruitment process.

For now, Liu is continuing to compete in international matches as she goes for another win in Croatia at the Designated Junior World Cup on Jan. 31 and in Italy at the Designated Senior Grand Prix on Feb. 7.