Transcripts

SPEAKER: Fencing now, it's enjoying growing popularity as a high school sport. Boys still outnumber girls overall in fencing, but that gap has narrowed substantially in the last two decades. Catherine Richard brings us this profile of an all-girl squad in Rochester, where each member sports a hijab in addition to a weapon.

CATHARINE RICHERT: Just a couple of years ago, fencing wasn't on the radar of 15-year-old Ekhlas Abdullahi. But as she suits up in head-to-toe protective gear before practice with the rest of her team from the Rochester STEM Academy, she tells me that 2016 Olympics changed all of that. Champion fencer, Ibtihaj Muhammad, became the first Muslim-American woman to win an Olympic medal. She won a bronze team medal wearing hijab, the headscarf Abdullahi wears, too.

EKHLAS ABDULLAHI: Usually, you don't see people who look like you. It's not a very diverse sport. And seeing somebody who looks like me inspired me to try it.

CATHARINE RICHERT: Abdullahi is a practicing Muslim, whose religion requires her to stay covered in public. Fencing is one of the few sports that Abdullahi can participate in because of the gear. The entire body is covered, except for one hand. Teammate, Amina Ahmed, said she longed to compete in a sport before she found fencing.

AMINA AHMED: The problem would be my clothing if I was trying other sports.

CATHARINE RICHERT: That ruled out things like softball, soccer, or field hockey.

AMINA AHMED: For example, I can wear shorts, but I can wear tights.

CATHARINE RICHERT: As it turns out, their athletic hero became a fencer for exactly the same reason. Here's Ibtihaj Muhammad back in 2016, telling Stephen Colbert about the start of her fencing career.

IBTIHAJ MUHAMMAD: Growing up, I played a ton of different sports. As a Muslim kid who wore hijab, I would have to have long sleeves when my teammates were short sleeves. And driving past the local high school, my mom saw fencing. Didn't know what it was, but I knew that because they were fully covered. She wanted me to try it when I got to high school.

CATHARINE RICHERT: STEM Academy fencing coach, Corliss Hicks, says modesty was a big consideration when the school launched the nine-member girl's fencing team a few years ago. The charter school student body is predominantly Muslim, and most of the kids are Somali-American.

CORLISS HICKS: So when we were starting a boys soccer program at Rochester STEM Academy came up when we need a girl's sport, well, we need a sport that is culturally acceptable. And somebody said, well, how about fencing?

CATHARINE RICHERT: Initially, Hicks had some difficulty recruiting students to the team, but Olympian Muhammad helped with that, too. Hicks kept a Time Magazine article about the athlete on hand to get kids and their parents interested.

CORLISS HICKS: And that made a difference for the kids and for their families because their families are like, you want to do what?

CATHARINE RICHERT: For 15-year-old Faizah Muhammad's parents, it wasn't modesty they were so concerned about. It was the swords.

FAIZAH MUHAMMAD: I was telling my mom on her way to school the first day of practice, and she told me, you're not going to do that. You're going to die. You're going to get stabbed, and you're going to die. I can't let my daughter die.

CATHARINE RICHERT: After showing her parents the swords have rubber tips, she says she won their full support. Faizah Muhammad also told me about the rush she gets when her sword taps the vest of her competitor. It's called a touch or a touche in French. It's a sentiment other girls on the team expressed, this powerful draw that keeps them committed to the sport through after-school practices and long trips to the Twin Cities on weekends to compete. Faizah Muhammad likens the sport to chess.

FAIZAH MUHAMMAD: And it allows you to use your mind and your body as a chess piece. You think about what you're going to do next and how to get the next touch.

BRIANNA SMITH: They're just super, super fun. They're so fun to watch.

CATHARINE RICHERT: That's Brianna Smith, a high school fencing coach in the Twin Cities and vice president of the Minnesota Fencing Division. She's in Rochester for the evening to coach the girls on their technique. Smith says she works with a lot of high schoolers who start fencing at a young age. Some have fencing fatigue by the time Smith gets to coach them. Not so for the STEM Academy team.

BRIANNA SMITH: It's like they're so excited about fencing, and it's still so new and fresh to them.

CATHARINE RICHERT: In a sport where participants are predominantly upper income and white, Smith says she hopes the STEM Academy Team is a good representation of where fencing is heading.

BRIANNA SMITH: We try to foster diversity, and I think our teams often are diverse. But it's not the same as having a team that's really made up of kids coming from the same community, being able to support each other.

CATHARINE RICHERT: And the STEM Academy team is starting to get attention outside of Rochester. Team member, Amina Ahmed, recently won a scholarship from USA Fencing, and her membership will allow her to compete in higher profile matches. Catharine Richert, Minnesota Public Radio News, Rochester.