Gerard Moreno has fenced since 1995.

Weaving right, dodging left, gerard moreno lunges and blocks. With a singing ring of metal striking metal, he executes a counterattack and an evasion (riposte and feint in fencing terms). Then—with light flashing on his blade as it strikes home in a graceful downward arch on his opponent’s chest—he hits a solid point. It is an exchange that lasts only a few seconds, one that could be seen in any fencing salle, or school, across the country with one exception—Moreno is in a wheelchair.

Although wheelchair fencing is virtually unknown in the United States—the first US team was formed in 1996—it has been a mainstay of European adaptive athletics since the late 1940s and the Paralympics since the 1960s. Like other adaptive technology sports, wheelchair fencing is more than just a good time for participants. It is serious competition for the athletes and an important source of new information for rehabilitation and mobility technology research.

For Moreno, a paralegal and accountant in Los Angeles, wheelchair fencing was an opportunity to return to a sport that he practiced 20 years ago while in college—before he injured his T8 vertebrae and lost the use of his legs. When his brother, Magic, alerted him that wheelchair fencing existed, Moreno found Ted Katzoff, an instructor at the Westside Fencing Center in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Culver City, who was willing to take him on.

Because there are so few wheelchair fencers in the United States—worldwide there are only about 500—most train only at the Shepard Rehabilitation Hospital in Atlanta. But Katzoff had become involved in wheelchair fencing after a long history of training fencers who were temporarily chairbound because of leg injuries.

Together Moreno and Katzoff found success. They have worked together at Westside for the last 6 years, and Moreno was a member of the 1998 US wheelchair fencing team competing at the world championship for that sport held in Bonn, Germany.

There are three styles of fencing—foil, epee, and sabre—and Moreno finished 12th in sabre and 21st in foil in Bonn. “In fencing terms [these] are exceptionally good results, since...the Europeans have been doing this a lot longer than the Americans have,” says Katzoff, who was a coach for the US wheelchair fencing team the year Moreno went.

At the world championships, 18 countries from around the globe competed. Like traditional fencers, wheelchair fencers must rank among the top 25 internationally to make it to the world championships.

Besides the presence of a wheelchair, the rules of wheelchair fencing, such as scoring and distance of opponents, are very similar to the rules for traditional fencing with one important exception—the fencers are stationary. During matches their chairs are locked into metal frames tethered together with a metal pipe that can be adjusted with a rack and pinion ratchet.

The frame makes learning the sport somewhat easier, particularly for wheelchair users that are new to wheelchair sports, Katzoff says. “The chair is not something you have to deal with at the same time that you’re dealing with everything else,” he says.

There are also some special regulations governing the wheelchairs. The chair back has to be at 90°, the seat has a set maximum height, and the seat cushion has a set maximum thickness. Moreno uses a chair in competition that allows him to get as much height as possible—an advantage in reaching an opponent—but there are no brand restrictions governing chairs. Because of the advantage that height gives, there are strict rules that ensure fencers remain in their chairs. Participants must have one buttock on the chair at all times, thus prohibiting sitting on the hand rail to get additional height or avoid getting hit. Distance is governed by the fencer with the shortest reach, who can choose to be closer or further back.

Most wheelchair fencers are amputees or have spinal cord injuries or neurological problems, such as mild cerebral palsy. There are three categories of fencers. Level A fencers are amputees and have full control of their abdominal muscles. Level B fencers are paralyzed and have partial control of their abdominal muscles. Finally, level C fencers are essentially quadriplegic but still have gross movement of their limbs.

Moreno, who is also an avid wheelchair basketball player and downhill wheelchair racer, was inspired to take up the sport for the same reason nonwheelchair users take up an athletic activity. “I find the one-on-one competition exhilarating,” he says. “It’s sort of like a chess game. You’re trying to outwit the other person who’s trying to do the same thing. In some ways it’s a lot like tennis. You’re trying to set someone up for a move you might do later on in a match.”

Along with the competition have come lasting friendships, excitement, and world travel. He was the anchor of the US wheelchair fencing team at the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, Australia, in October. “In Sydney I had a very memorable team match,” says Moreno, his eyes lighting visibly. “We were about to be eliminated from the final round of eight, and it was between us and Kuwait to see who would go into the final round. We were losing the match...we were down 40 to 33—the match is at 45 points. We scored four points on each other fairly quickly. It was 44 to 37, and I ran off the last eight points and beat them 45-44, and knocked them out. The stadium was filled with people. The scoreboards were linked all around. There was chanting and cheering. It was incredible.”

This victory, which Moreno relates in a quiet voice, is, for Katzoff, a window into the spirit of the wheelchair user. “These people are living a heroic life every single day; things that an able-bodied person can’t even begin to understand,” says Katzoff. “But for them, it’s ordinary, it’s normal. Basically you ignore the wheelchair. It’s saying that you can participate in anything that anybody does within your given limitations. Then you begin to ignore the limitations.”

Wheelchair fencing is just one of a plethora of wheelchair sports expanding assistive technology and medical research. The US Department of Veterans Affairs conducted a variety of studies during its National Veterans Wheelchair Games, July 1-5, to evaluate assistive technology development—including ways to improve wheelchair design and determine how many calories those with spinal cord injuries need to burn to avoid spinal cord-related disease complications. Because they have less exercising muscle mass, athletes with spinal cord injuries must expend more effort to burn the same number of calories as an able-bodied person.

One of the reasons Moreno fences is for the health benefits. “[Fencing] is a good workout, it keeps me in shape,” he says.

When Katzoff’s able-bodied students fence with Moreno, they experience how much effort he expends firsthand. “The able-bodied have to sit in a chair and have to be like [Moreno] rather than the other way around,” Katzoff says. “Everyone finds it exciting, fascinating, and challenging—and they get a hell of a fight.”

The crossover of able-bodied and wheelchair fencers competing against each other may be part of wheelchair fencing’s future. The challenge, says Katzoff, is getting more people involved in the sport. He hopes that by attracting more people to the Westside Fencing Center he will be able to organize a class.

For Moreno, though, wheelchair fencing continues to be in his present. His next stop is Hungary in October for the World Cup.

C.A. Wolski is associate editor of Dealer/Provider.