Ryerson Alumni - Summer 2015 - 44

PhotoS courtesy of Ryerson University Archives

remember when?
A champion's
stance: Kay
Aoyama in 1971.

The fencing
team practices in
October 1964.

Salute to a swordswoman
Fencing club founder Kay Aoyama led the team by example
By Antoinette
Mercurio

F

or close to 40 years, Ryerson's
fencing team had a champion
leading its charge.
Kay Aoyama, who started the
fencing club in 1964, was the
first female coach in the Ontario
Women's Intercollegiate Athletic
Association and produced worldclass champions. She was a winner
in her own right, capturing bronze
at the 1970 Commonwealth Games
in Scotland, becoming Canadian
Fencing Champion in 1971 and

44 Ryerson University Magazine *

Summer 2015

competing at the Pan Am Games in
Colombia that same year. She came
close to qualifying for the 1972
Olympics in Munich, missing by a
single point, and then was an official
at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.
Not bad considering the former
nursing instructor picked up the
sport at more than 30 years old
"to keep fit."
Fencing has been an Olympic
sport since the inaugural 1896
Games. Armed with a foil, épée or

sabre, combatants must make quick,
strategic decisions in a narrow space
to outwit their opponents.
Aoyama coached the team until
1995 but stayed on part-time
until 2001, supervising and giving
lessons to first-time fencers. She was
instrumental in making the club
the longest active one of its kind
in Ontario. During the 1970s, "we
were really powerful," she says, as
players often placed in the top five,
won tournaments and competed for
Olympic berths.
Today, the fencing team continues
to compete, recently capturing
several top 10 finishes at the Ontario
University Athletics Championship.
Archived Ryersonian articles quote
former student-athletes who describe
Aoyama as "critical and tough but she
knew what she was talking about."
Aoyama took the sport and her duties
seriously, packing healthy lunches
of roasted chicken sandwiches and
vegetables for her team for away
tournaments and enforcing a "no
chocolate" rule during competition.
Aoyama is still active, going to
the Ryerson Athletic Centre as often
as possible to work out and swim.
Although she gave up fencing 15 years
ago, she hopes to feel strong enough
one day to teach fencing again.
"It was a wonderful time of my
life," says the 83-year-old. "I loved
every minute of it." n
Antoinette Mercurio is
associate editor of Ryerson
University Magazine.



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