India’s First Olympic Fencer C.A Bhavani Devi: Inspirational Journey From Tamil Nadu to Tokyo

Never give up, never give in, and when the upper hand is ours, may we have the ability to handle the win with the dignity that we absorbed the loss

-Doug Williams

C.A Bhavani Devi was born on 27 August 1993 to a middle-class family in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. She was first introduced to fencing at school. She recalls the experience of accidentally discovering the sport saying, “When I enrolled to take up the sport, we were all divided into groups and were given the option to choose from five different sports. By the time my turn came, there were slots only in fencing,” she told India Today in an interview.

As a shy 11-year-old she was intrigued to find out what fencing was when its existence was barely known in India. She quickly fell in love with the sport and decided to seriously pursue it for which she had to lie about her family’s income to be able to enroll. It has not been an easy journey for Bhavani as she was from an impoverished family and fencing equipment was extremely expensive to obtain. So much so that during practices they made use of bamboo sticks and only used proper swords at competitions. After finishing grade 10, Bhavani moved to Kerala to join the Sports Authority of India (SAI) under coach Sagar Lagu where she found people speaking in Malayalam, a language she didn’t know at all. But her shrewdness and determination made her adapt to her surroundings quickly.

Her list of achievements runs long. She started her international career from the Bronze medal at the 2009 CommonWealth Championship held in Malaysia, Bhavani Devi has won Bronze medals in 2010 International Open, Thailand; 2010 Cadet Asian Championship, Philippines; 2012 CommonWealth Championship, Jersey; 2015 Under-23 Asian Championship, Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar and 2015 Flemish Open. In the 2014 Asian Championship under 23 categories in the Philippines, she bagged the Silver medal becoming the first Indian to do so. Currently ranked 42nd globally and at number one in the country, She made history in 2017 as India’s first international gold medalist at the Women’s World Cup in Reykjavik, Iceland. All of this success has been achieved by her hard work, dedication and sacrifice. It was a financial struggle for Bhavani, who for a brief period in 2014 wanted to give up her dream to be a professional fencing player due to the lack of funds. But it was the GoSports Foundation that helped her pursue her ultimate goal of participating in the Olympic games. 

After 17 years of learning, dreaming and improving, Bhavani Devi qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games and became the first Indian fencer to achieve this feat. Over the years, her performance in international competitions has garnered her the respect of fencers from around the world. She deeply believes that fencing in India can attain great levels of popularity if introduced at a young age in all schools so that all children are given the opportunity she had received. By doing so, “we will definitely be producing more and more top-level fencers in the near future.” she said in an interview with Times of India. 

A story of strength, dedication, hardwork and sacrifice, Bhavani Devi is an inspiration for athletes everywhere and the pride of India. It is a great honor and privilege that we, at Global Child Prodigy, have India’s first Olympic fencer – Bhavani Devi as our Advisor. With her support, we look forward to creating a significant impact on improving the lives of child prodigies around the globe. 

#GCPWishesOlympians

Team Global Child Prodigy Congratulates Momishi Nishiya and Rayssa Leal for their historic victories in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. This will inspire millions of people worldwide, including children who aspire to be like them. 

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