Paralympic fencing with a Utahn in Tokyo - TownLift, Park City News

Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Wheelchair Fencing. Photo: Haruo Wanibe

TOKYO, Japan. — Shelby Jensen, 20, from Salt Lake City, is representing the United States in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games in the sport of wheelchair fencing. She contests all three of the disciplines; saber, epee, and foil. This is her Paralympic debut.

Her scores were as follows on the opening day of competition in the pool preliminaries in the individual for the saber:

Lost against Chinese athlete 0 -5
Lost against Hungarian athlete 2 – 5
Lost against Italian athlete 1 – 5
Lost against Ukrainian athlete 0 – 5

Jensen finished out this first day of fencing in Tokyo in 15th place.

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Tomorrow, she’ll compete in the second discipline of epee against different pool play nations.

Before graduating from Olympus High School just two years ago, Jensen was seven years old when, according to the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), a brain aneurysm caused her to have a stroke and left her slightly paralyzed on her right side. She does have the ability to stand up and move her legs to a very minimal extent which puts her into the ‘A’ classification within international competition. Jensen attends Salt Lake Community College.

She is is an assistant at Salt Lake County Adaptive Recreation which works in conjunction with Park City’s National Ability Center (NAC). This Saturday is the NAC’s annual cycling event the Summit Challenge. All abilities are welcome to register and participate in the race which is a fundraiser to help train more athletes with disabilities in dozens of sports perhaps all the way to the next Paralympic Games. More information including registration, volunteering and donations options for the 2021 NAC Summit Challenge can be found here.