The roar of the crowd echoed around the vast, vaulted glass ceiling of the Grand Parlais museum in Paris, France. Sean Shumate looked up in awe. Thousands of people were cheering for the elite wheelchair fencing athletes from all over the world competing at the 2024 Paralympic Games.
The electrifying feeling never got old. Not when he was refereeing wheelchair fencing at the past three Paralympics, like he was in Paris, and not when he himself competed in the Games in Athens in 2004.
Sean says wheelchair fencing has given him a gift. His life was instantly changed after the car accident that paralyzed him from the waist down when he was just a 20-year-old college student at Morehead State. But it’s given him more than he could have imagined as a sporty kid growing up in Ashland, Kentucky.
Now an internationally renowned referee at 53, what would Sean tell that 20-year-old grinding through rehab and learning to use a wheelchair? “I don’t know because, I would say just keep doing what you’re doing,” he says. “There’s nothing in my life that I would change. I’ve got a wonderful marriage, kids, and career in sports. I’ve been blessed beyond measure even though I’ve had a lot of setbacks. Put your nose to the grindstone and get it done. At the end of the day, it’s the efforts you put into what you’re doing.”
It was a chance connection during a quest for a hot dog that led Sean to his heart sport. A few years after his accident, he nearly bumped wheelchairs with a young woman exiting the elevator at the Oxmoor Center food court. She just happened to be part of the 1996 U.S. Paralympic fencing team, and she told him about the Louisville Fencing Center. That’s where Sean discovered wheelchair fencing, which allows people who use a wheelchair to strap into a frame and compete in a physically and mentally challenging bout on an equalized playing field.
“This is a game of thought, not a game of thrones,” says Dawn Wilson, head of coaching at Louisville Fencing Center. “It’s physical chess: I have to outsmart you.”
Dawn didn’t pick up fencing until she was 37, but by her 50s she’d worked her way up to being a member of the U.S. Veteran Fencing World Championship team in both 2017 and 2018. She has gained perspective by strapping into the wheelchair fencing frame to practice with Sean and other wheelchair fencers, and she’s now dedicating her time to coaching the next generation of athletes, teaching them the respect, mental toughness, and physical strength required for this game.
“We salute each other, whether you’re in a chair or able-bodied,” Dawn says. “It’s about sportsmanship.”
Both Sean and Dawn stress that fencing is a sport for anyone from age 8 to 80. Whatever your age, you can decide to fence for fun and recreation, or you can train to compete at an elite level. (“We’ve had some grandmothers down here, and they were vicious,” Dawn says with a laugh.) All the while, you’ll get a cardiovascular workout with minimal risk of injury — the protective gear actually makes it one of the safest sports you can do, Sean says — and you’ll enjoy connecting with fellow athletes.
“This sport is a great opportunity to meet some new folks, and you get to stab them,” Sean says jokingly. “At the end of the day, you take off your gear, and you sit down and talk about how the day was. There are so many good friendships I’ve made from this sport.”
The accessibility offered by adaptive fencing also reaches across lines and builds understanding between those who use a wheelchair and those who don’t.
“One of those interesting things about wheelchair fencing is that when you’re positioned in the frame, you don’t move,” Sean says, “so it becomes all about what you’re doing with your mind and hands. This sport allows non-disabled individuals the ability and opportunity to see that the chair isn’t the factor. The chair doesn’t identify the person. Even though there’s a disability, it allows them to see that it can be conquered and overcome. It’s life-changing, but not life-ending.”
By Jessica Alyea | Photos Erika Doll
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