A Blue Hose is representing the Red, White, and Blue in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, Aug. 28-Sept. 8.
Ellen Geddes ’10 is representing Team USA for her second Paralympic Games after competing in Tokyo four years ago as a member of the wheelchair fencing squad.
The International Paralympic Committee listed the Presbyterian College graduate as one of the 10 “Ones to Watch” in wheelchair fencing on the strength of Geddes’ number one ranking in the United States as a Category B fencer. In addition, Geddes is a double Americas Championships gold medalist and has competed in five world championships.
Geddes took up competitive fencing at the Shepherd Center for Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Rehabilitation in Atlanta, Ga., after suffering a spinal injury in an automobile accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down.
“I went to the Shepherd Center’s gym on a Saturday to do some extra training,” she said in a story posted on the PC website. “The Shepherd Fencing Team was already there practicing, so I started watching them. Their captain came over to me and asked me if I was interested in learning how to stab people. I said, ‘Yes, of course.’”
A year after her accident, Geddes competed as a wheelchair fencer in her first North American Cup, winning bronze in epee and foil. In 2013, she fenced at her first World Cup and in her first Wheelchair World Championships.
In Tokyo, Geddes placed seventh in Women’s Team Epee, eighth in Women’s Team Foil, and 14th in Women’s Individual Epee. In last year’s World Championships, she finished ninth in Women’s Individual Foil, 10th in Women’s Team Foil, and 14th in Women’s Individual Epee.
Professionally, the Aiken native continues to live and work on the two horse farms she owns in South Carolina – Maplewood Farm and Bridlewood Farm – and is the breeding director for Magnolia Sport Horses.
