In combat, she manages the “craziest moves,” says foil fencer Leonie Ebert about the challenges of her sport: “I jump into the deepest crouch without warning” – without any problems. And then in a “pretty small movement” she tears the cruciate ligament in her right knee. Bad luck for athletes.
The moment that turned the 24-year-old’s life upside down happened at the first World Cup of the pre-Olympic season with the team in Novi Sad in mid-December. In the last fight, seven seconds before the end, her knee “briefly buckled inwards” when walking backwards, as she later saw in the video: “and then I over-extended it”. Zack. Torn cruciate ligament. Competition ended, season ended – and as a result lost participation in the Olympics, which previously seemed almost certain.
The fencer from Tauberbischofsheim recently received a letter saying that her name will be missing when the qualification cycle for Paris is completed on April 1st. In the relevant team ranking, the German team slipped to eighth place without Ebert’s support. Although eight teams per branch are eligible to take part, one quota place is reserved for Africa – and that goes to the Egyptians, who are ranked 15th. It was a debacle for the German Fencing Association (DFB), as not a single team qualified for Paris in the six team competitions.
Great bad luck: Leonie Ebert misses the Paris Olympics : Image: REUTERS
In the individual ranking, the 2022 European champion slipped from fourth place to 22nd place. Because only one individual starter per nation is allowed to compete at the Olympics, the German quota place goes to Anne Sauer, who placed fifth. “She fought very hard and deserves the qualification rank,” says Ebert, paying tribute to her teammate, who is eight years older and has to fight her way through as a lone fighter in Paris. In addition to Anne Sauer, only saber fencer Matyas Szabo will be fencing for Olympic honors as a DFB representative.
Leonie Ebert has thought a lot about why her knee overreacted so much in that one fateful second. “We came out of the season break. I had trained very disciplinedly for two months. I was very fit.” However, she had to deal with some illnesses the previous season. “My body suffered a lot and I also demanded a lot from it.” It is necessary to think about reasons: “But making an obsession about it is unhealthy.” Their motto: accept fate and “look forward positively”.
“Like the family golden retriever”
A double irony of fate weighs on the Ebert sports family: Leonie’s brother Constantin, a basketball player with Bundesliga experience, had also suffered a torn cruciate ligament three weeks before her. “I was five meters away when it happened,” she says about her big brother’s bad luck with injuries. “It was really sad for him because it was the second cruciate ligament tear, this time on the other side.” The little sister helped him get through the toughest time – “then I overdid it with empathy” – when she too injured. The “absurd situation” culminated at Christmas when both siblings had to put their feet up at the holiday table. “The next day it was too much for me and then I sat down on the floor – like the family’s golden retriever.”
Her knee’s ability to flex was three degrees – “I couldn’t do anything.” Thanks to exercise therapy and advanced training, she has now reached 140 degrees. Given her injury, Leonie Ebert wanted to give “130 percent” to be 100 percent fit for Paris. The left-hander is now concentrating on the 2028 Olympics – even if she is “heartbroken” about the missed opportunity for 2024. Fencing is very important in the Grand Nation, and the Olympic competitions are held in the unique ambience of the historic Grand Palais. Ebert is still torn as to whether she will watch the games live – or whether she would rather “send herself into the desert”.
After all, Leonie Ebert has already gained Olympic experience – in 2021 she was the only German individual starter and reached the round of 16 in Tokyo. Her big goal there was to meet Roger Federer, she had said before, half-jokingly. Nothing came of it, Federer had to withdraw due to injury.
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Ebert makes no secret of the fact that she also raves about other athletes and has not forgotten how “as a little fencer” she met the stars of the scene at the time as a bag carrier at the World Cup in Tauberbischofsheim. One of them was the two-time world champion Arianna Errigo from Italy. Ebert fought against the now 35-year-old in the European Championship final in 2022 – and won. “Today, when little girls come up to me and ask for a photo, I feel totally honored – I used to be the same way.”
