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Video: Meet Richmond's Olympians, part 3: Shaul Gordon, fencer

Richmond Olympic fencer Shaul Gordon talks about how he took up the sport as a kid after watching a Zorro cartoon and explains his "Ice Daddy" nickname

The Richmond News sat down via a Zoom video link with some of Richmond's Olympic hopefuls for Tokyo and talked candidly about their preparations, hopes and dreams for the upcoming Games.

We kicked off the "Meet Richmond's Olympians" series on Friday with 50K racewalker Evan Dunfee.

Today, we are profiling the second of two Richmond-based fencers heading to the Games, Shaul Gordon, an alumnus of Richmond Secondary.

Gordon – who started fencing at the age of seven in Turin, Italy, where he lived with his family – has called Richmond home since 2004.

He has been training at the Dynamo Fencing Club in north Richmond, under the guidance of Maître Victor Gantsevich, founder and head coach of one of the most successful fencing clubs in Canada.

After graduating from Richmond Secondary’s IB Program, Gordon went first to Penn State University - on an athletic scholarship - where he finished second in the NCAA championship.

He then moved to University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where he helped the team to win the Ivy League championship in 2016.

In the show, Gordon tells Richmond News reporter Alan Campbell how he took up fencing age seven after watching a Zorro cartoon and explained why his nickname is “Ice Daddy.”