July 16, 2004
Paul Jay, CBC Sports Online

Sherraine!

Forget Spider Man. Not-so-mild-mannered MacKay can perform superhuman feats and even vanquish her arch-nemesis when she puts on the mask.

Superman has Lex Luther. Batman has the Joker. And Sherraine McKay has Imke Duplitzer.

Okay, granted, Canadian fencer Sherraine MacKay is not a superhero. But the native of Brooks, Alta. does wear a mask and a cool uniform. And she's got a fancy weapon called an epee.

Yes, yes, a fencing epee does look too thin to be threatening, and MacKay is too ebullient to be menacing. Press releases of her victories often refer to MacKay "outpoking" her opponents. Not exactly intimidating.

But fencers can have a nemesis, a "bete noire" -- that one rival who represents a hurdle, both psychological and physical. It can be very serious business.

MacKay's bete noire is Imke Duplitzer of Germany.

Duplitzer and MacKay (nee Schalm) were both 17 years old when they first met in competition 12 years ago. They were both moving up in the world of junior fencing and would make perfect rivals, except for one thing: Duplitzer didn't seem to notice.

"She has been my nemesis since I was 17, but I don't think I was her nemesis, since as a young kid, I've watched her from afar beat up on everybody,” said MacKay during an interview with CBC Sports Online. "She's about six-foot-one and she's been six-foot-one since she was 17."

Their first match did not go well -- at least not for MacKay.

"I remember fencing with her as a 17-year old, and she just took me to town," she said. "My coach actually said, 'You looked like Mickey Mouse against her,' and I was like, "I felt like Mickey Mouse too!'"

Duplitzer or no Duplitzer, MacKay was about to become the most successful fencer in Canadian history. Entering last July's Grand Prix in Sydney, MacKay had won gold in four World Cup meets, won medals in seven others, placed sixth at a world championships and represented Canada in the 2000 Sydney Olympics (placing 17th).

The fateful fleche

"I took off my mask and this feeling just overwhelmed me, a feeling of satisfaction and also a feeling of elation that you didn't want it to end. It was like, 'Bring on the next opponent!'"

After the Olympics, Sherraine moved to Paris to train with her new coach, Daniel Levavasseur. She added more of an attacking stance to her arsenal of moves and feints, although she remained at heart a counter-attacker, the kind of person you'd hate to get in a flinching contest with.

But there was still Duplitzer. MacKay couldn't beat her, no matter how many times she faced her. Duplitzer wasn't just Lex Luther; she was kryptonite.

Then came the 2003 Sydney Grand Prix. In the gold-medal match, MacKay and her long-time rival were tied 14-14. The first fencer to 15 would be the winner.

MacKay turned to Levavasseur for direction, who said one word: "Fleche!"

A fleche is a running attack, where the fencer leaps off the front foot and lunges to make a hit with the tip of the blade. If unsuccessful, the fencer will try to run past the opponent. It's risky.

"It's a really aggressive attack, and I was like, yup, got to be aggressive," MacKay said. "So I just turned back around and fleched, and I looked, and my lamp was going off which meant I got the [hit]."

Duplitzer, like any good nemesis, did not take the match well.

"She didn't talk to me for a couple of months after that because I beat her for the first time in our lives. Since then, we fenced in Germany, and she's beaten me by just one or two points, but still….now she talks to me again."

Since MacKay gave this interview in May, she's beaten Duplitzer twice more in June. In Havana, Cuba, she defeated Duplitzer 15-13 in the third round. And on her way to capturing gold at the Gigante World Cup in Carolina, Puerto Rico, she again ousted the 2002 world championship silver medallist, 15-13 in the semifinals.

MacKay is now ranked fifth in the world, ahead of Duplitzer, who is ranked seventh. Both fencers will be competing for the gold in Athens.

But just as Spider Man moved from the Green Goblin to Doctor Octopus, so too must MacKay set her sights on the next group of fencers: the top-ranked French pair of Laura Flessel-Colovic and Maureen Nisima, or China's Li Na, who handed MacKay a loss in the semifinals of the Legnano World Cup in Italy earlier this year.

Still, she shouldn't overlook Duplitzer. After all, the imposing German fencer now has a bete noire or her own to overcome in Athens.

Any guesses who that might be?

reprinted with permission