Natalie Vie has been ranked among the Top 100 fencers in the sport, is a two-time National Champion, and she competed on the U.S. National Team during the 2012 Olympics—and she’s only 29-years-old. I spoke to Natalie, who is currently training to qualify for the 2016 Olympic games to be held in Rio de Janeiro, about how she enjoys spending her free time, how she gives back to the community, and how she expresses herself creatively.
Fencing is at the very center of this Arizona State University graduates world, even though she admits to getting into it a lot later in life. “Fencing was a love at first sight kind of thing,” she explained. “And I knew it would be a lifelong affair. I started fencing at 18, which is quite late, but I didn’t care. It felt exciting and I wanted to pursue that feeling. I don’t know why I felt so strongly so early on but I think that that’s how love is sometimes. It hits you and you pursue it even though it may not seem logical or practical to anyone else.”
After Natalie was selected to be part of the 2012 Olympic Team in London, she had to face a lot of challenges including funding. As the oldest of four children in a single- family household, this could have been a make or break moment for her but she did whatever she could to make her dreams come true.
“I was the 4th alternate for the Olympic Team in London,” Natalie said. “It was my first year on the world circuit and even though I was adjusting to the traveling, the highs, the lows and competing at that level— I was just so excited to be there!”
“That first world circuit was also completed entirely on my own dime. The families at my hometown-fencing club in Phoenix pitched in, I collected miles from people and even a few customers at a table I waited on at my old restaurant donated. I traveled a whole year couch surfing on a shoestring budget. I really don’t know how I did it but every step of the way I felt the Universe was there protecting and guiding me.”
Even though Natalie keeps a pretty tight training schedule, she likes to give back to the community by mentoring youths through the U.S. Olympic Committee Community Development Program in New York City. “There are so few female coaches in all sports so it’s important for young people to see women in leadership positions in their sport. For girls, it’s important to see other accomplished women that they can look to as role models especially women of color! For boys, it’s important for their inner development as well. If a young boy can learn to respect and look up to a woman in their sport I know it will have a deep and lasting impact on the way they treat and relate to women for the rest of their lives.”
During her free time, Natalie likes to express her creativity by writing a comic book. “I’m an artist and I got my BFA in Sculpture so I’m always creating no matter what. Because our world tour is almost year-round I spend a lot of my time on planes, trains and cars unable to object-make. So for the last few years my creativity has been manifesting through my pen. I first drew out SuperSonicNava with her epee skating above my Brooklyn rooftop (the original drawing is on my instagram!). Then her entire story began to develop in my head over time. Her friends, her interests, her fears all started becoming very real. I think about her all the time and at some point as the plot began to unfold I realized that SuperSonicNava is a piece of me and of my untold story.”
