The summer of 2021 did not roll out at all like Pamela Brind’Amour had planned.
Instead of competing in the sabre fencing event at the Tokyo Olympics, she watched the Games from her couch, nursing her body and thinking about what might have been.
“A month before the beginning of the qualifications for the Tokyo Games, I tore my ACL [in Belgium],” she said recently before a practice at College Brebeuf’s gym in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood.
“And then I came back in June again for Pan Ams and Worlds and I tore my meniscus and after that I needed surgery.”
The injuries, coupled with the pandemic halting competitions across the world, meant she spent close to two years away from the sport. She focused on getting her degree in kinesiology and even pitched in at a long-term care home during the pandemic. By then, Brind’Amour was in her late 20s, and wondering if Tokyo had been her last chance to make the Games.
“I wasn’t sure I was really willing to come back because it’s a lot of time and effort,” she said. But the itch was too strong to ignore.
“I decided to try. I competed in nationals and I won and it just sparked a little something in me.”
After that national title, she began competing in international meets. She won silver in team sabre in the Pan Am Games in Chile in 2023, and was a quarter-finalist in the individual event.
She also won an individual silver medal in Peru at the Pan American Championships. After being worried about being able to perform to her standards after such a long time off, Brind’Amour was back on track.
From spectator to star
Her journey has been a family affair. She got into the sport when she was 11 after being dragged to her brother’s practices. He was a big Star Wars fan and their mother thought fencing would be a good outlet. By the time she was 14, Brind’Amour was winning medals at national competitions and decided to quit basketball to focus on fencing.
But her parents offered more than just car rides and words of encouragement. Travelling around the world to different fencing tournaments is expensive, and Brind’Amour is not a carded athlete, meaning she doesn’t get a monthly stipend from the government to offset the costs of competing.
With the help of her parents, Brind’Amour estimates she pays nearly $40,000 per year just to remain competitive in the sport. She does get some money from the provincial sports federation, and the charity Can Fund recently gave her $8,000, but it’s not nearly enough.
So, at the age of 28, Brind’Amour decided to move back in with her parents.
Sitting around the kitchen of the Brind’Amour home in Sainte-Martine on Montreal’s South Shore, Brind’Amour’s mother says she’s happy to have her back.
“A lot of people have idols, but mine is in my house,” said Carole Lemieux, gesturing to her daughter. But Lemieux also says it shouldn’t be this way.
“I find it sad because she represents Canada. The country is proud of her but she paid for everything herself.”
Pierre Brind’Amour says his daughter deserves her shot at the Olympics because of how much she’s poured into the sport. He calls her resilient, organized and determined, saying she worked as many jobs as she could when she was younger so she could pay for her next event.
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“She worked here and there and everywhere. Night shift. Day shift. She finished the night shift and [would] get home, get dressed and then go to some competition,” he said.
Both of Brind’Amour’s parents will be in Paris cheering her on.
“For us it’s big because we’ve been here all these years and we’ve supported her all the time the best we could,” said Pierre Brind’Amour, who said he’s proud of his daughter for sticking with the sport despite all the challenges thrown at her.
Canada is sending 14 fencers to Paris, its largest Olympic team ever. But the country has never won a medal. Brind’Amour is ranked in the top 50 in sabre.
“My goal is to win,” she said. “I don’t really see myself setting a lower goal, like just saying ‘Oh I want to win my first match,’ or ‘I want to do good.’ That’s not motivating enough for me.”
The fencing competition gets underway July 27.