The Bellarmine student body contains many people of excellence. This month’s student spotlight falls upon a freshman, Ian Clifton. Clifton competed in the 2026 Junior Olympics, a nation-wide event, for fencing. The 2026 Junior Olympics were held in Kansas and featured a round-robin qualifying round which then seated competitors based on performance; the top 60% of the seating moved on to the final elimination.
Ian Clifton began his fencing career quite recently with much support from his parents and friends. When asked when he began and who his support system was, Clifton answered, “A year and a half [ago]. I’m not the best fencer. I mean, I definitely am not amazing, but it was a great experience, I had a lot of fun, and I did better than I thought I would. I’m still pretty new to the sport but, I’ve been supported by a lot of people. My dad also started fencing with me, and one of my friends does it, along with all the coaches at the club.”
His interest in the sport was jump-started through his parents: “My parents had been looking for sports for, quote unquote, tall kids, and the three that came up were basketball, volleyball, and fencing, and I don’t really like basketball, and most of my friends wouldn’t play volleyball. So we just had to try out fencing. So we looked for fancy clubs in the area, and found out there was one only a couple minutes away from my house.” However, what cemented his love for fencing was much more simple, Clifton stated: “It’s a good way to get your aggression out, but it’s also fun to run around and chase people.”
During the Junior Olympics, Clifton experienced the pinnacle of his current career; some standout match he watched was the final for his bracket: “I was really happy that I got to see the number two and number three cadet fencers for Epee and the Nation. I got to watch them fence for the finals, and that was really cool to watch.” The competition itself was very grand which brought about many emotions and reactions, for Clifton, the sheer size of the competition left him stunned, saying, “ I was really surprised. I didn’t think I would qualify and I was really happy. I was really excited. When I got there, it was… it was amazing. It was in a building, the biggest building I’ve ever been in. It was 400,000 square feet, something crazy like that. And I went up an escalator, and I just looked around, and it was fencing it everywhere you could see. It was crazy.”
Upon reflection about what his favorite memory was, Clifton said “Probably seeing some of my friends that I fenced just at other clubs around the area who also qualified.” When questioned about the new lessons and people he encountered, Clifton stated, “I met some high level fencers from various schools, including Notre Dame, which is the number one fencing school in America. And that was really fun, I got to learn, and see a bunch of new fencing techniques and just equipment in general.”
