Sportsister meets Jo Hutchison

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Many eight-year-olds get into fights - from verbal competitions to rough and tumble on the school field. But sword fights? Not so much.

However, for a young Jo Hutchison who grew up trying to skewer her siblings, her youth could not have been better spent, with the last 17 years helping prepare the Olympic hopeful for the biggest fight of her life - London 2012.

With now less that 500 days to go until next year’s Games, Jo is working harder than ever to ensure she secures an Olympic spot. Having narrowly missed out on a place at Beijing following a testing qualifying event, the 25-year-old is well aware of the pressures that face her over the next year.

Before hopping on a plane to Moscow for this year’s Sabre Grand Prix, the Commonwealths Champion managed to fit in a chat with Sportsister to talk her career, her hopes for London 2012 and why, with the clock ticking for ticket applications, fencing is the sport we should be bidding to watch.

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As one of the eight competitions on the sabre circuit, the Grand Prix is the last of the non-Olympic qualifying period, marking an important time for Jo as she heads into the final year of London 2012 preparations.

“It’s an important competition but it doesn’t count yet to the Olympic qualifying ranking for me,” Jo explains. “All of the competitions this year so far have been absolutely massive because everybody’s coming out to try and qualify for the Olympics, there are people coming out of the woodwork that you’ve not seen for a while, so it’s pretty immense.”

Being one of only four sports to have featured in every modern Olympic Games, it’s surprising how little is known about this technical and athletic sport, a point Jo recognises.

“Fencing to me is like an addiction that can’t be kicked…kind of like chocolate,” she says. “It’s one of the sports that people know so little about but I think people would be so surprised at what a sport it is.

“It’s very dynamic, it’s very passionate, lots of shouting, lots of screaming and lots of movement. I think people would be genuinely surprised.”

As a young child fueled by the desire to do as her older siblings did, Jo followed her brother and sister, joining a local Bath club as she was “ a bit jealous” of their involvement with fencing.

That jealousy, it seems, soon spread on to other members of the family, with her mother eventually following suit. “My mother was taking us around to competitions and we’d come off the piste and throw things at her or be angry and upset in the car on the way home and she just didn’t really understand it,” she tells us.

“So she decided that she’d take it up too so she could understand the emotions as well as understand the rules - now she’s the one that gets angry and throws things at us!”

From starting out as a young foil fencer, Jo’s career started off fairly nondescript. As she tells us, she took some time out because she “wasn’t doing very well”, and took up athletics instead. But after a while, she realised how much she missed fencing, and decided to take up sabre - quickly recognising that this might be the event for her.

“I managed to qualify for the under 17 World Championships within the first year of doing sabre,” she explains. “So I got the hang of it pretty well!”

Since then she’s moved up through the ranks and the circuits. Towards the end of her under 20 career she was ranked second in the world. Her senior career, as she puts it, has been “pretty up and down”, but she has been steadily climbing the rankings and is now as high as she’s ever been since 2005 - 40th in the world and no.3 in the UK.

Now a full time athlete, Jo uses Beijing as fuel for her future career and now concentrates solely on her sport.

“I decided after not qualifying for the Olympics [2008] that I needed to properly just focus on fencing because I wasn’t able to switch off - I was always either working or fencing.

“I think it’s really important as a fencer to be able to have the time to do your fencing and to do the extra physical things. I’m really pleased with the decision I made.”

However, she does still make time to work as a Special Constable in the City of London police, a career she admits she hopes to take up full time when she retires from fencing. “People often ask me if I’m good with my baton,” she told us, “but so far I’ve not had to use it!”

It’s clear that the chance to compete in front of a home crowd is important to Jo, and the upcoming European Championships will provide the perfect platform ahead of the Games. “There’s a massive tournament happening this year in Sheffield,” she explains. “We’re hosting the Championships from the 14th to the 19th of July and it’s probably going to be the only real home test before the Olympics.

“Hopefully we’ll get as many people as we can to come along and support us because it’s going to be the next closest thing that we’ll be hosting to the Olympics. It does make a difference to me having the home support.”

And how she feeling ahead of the Games? “In terms of my personal fencing I’m feeling pretty good actually. I feel like I’m fencing really well just unfortunately some of the results haven’t shown that yet. But I think I’ve got big stuff coming so I’m feeling quite positive in terms of getting closer to the qualification position.

“The whole city [London] is buzzing about it and it’s something that I really want to be part of. I’m also feeling strangely quite relaxed, I know it’s going to be tough but I know I’m working 110 per cent and I can only do my best.”

But, being a world class athlete is not without its problems - “It’s very tough on the legs,” she says. “I think you’ll find all fencers have problems trying to find jeans! I certainly do - one leg is always tighter than the other, but you get used to it!”

However, the future of British fencing, whether with fitting jeans or without, is looking bright. The sport has also recently secured a five-year partnership with Beazley, the specialist insurer, which will help to build a lasting legacy in the sport.

“They’re really going to help out the Association in terms of encouraging future stars and grassroots,” Jo tells us. “The development of fencing is really important, it’s a massive deal and it’s great.”

So what better time than now to get involved with fencing! Jo gives us her tips: “Generally if you’re interested in any sport, even if it’s not fencing, just get on the Internet and find out where they’re doing it and get involved.

“If you’ve seen something new, just get tickets for the Olympics and see as many sports as you can because it’s going to be inspiring. I think everyone should go for it and just get involved in sport.”

Tickets for London 2012 are available now via www.tickets.london2012.com up until April 26.

Jessica Whittinton, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine

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