Jujie Luan

A four-time Olympian, Luan Jujie was the 1984 Olympic foil champion – winning China’s first-ever Olympic fencing medal. After representing China at the 1988 Games in Seoul, she began her immigration to Canada, which she was inspired to pursue in 1983 at the Universiade in Edmonton, Alberta, where she fell in love with the city and returned in 1989, obtaining her Canadian citizenship in 1994.

She soon began coaching and did not compete for 12 years, but as the 2000 Olympic Games approached, and after less than a year of training, she qualified for Team Canada at age 42. At the age of 50 in 2008, she represented Canada again, having come full circle from her beginnings in China, and where a media frenzy followed her everywhere she went during those Games.

Luan, is a legend in China where she also won nine national titles and was named one of the top 50 athletes of the past 50 years (before the turn of the century). Books have been written about her, there is a movie about her life, and her name is in school textbooks in China for what she did as a 20-year old at the 1977 World Junior Championships. In her first match, the foil of a Russian snapped and stabbed through Luan’s left arm, her foil arm. The metal was removed from the resulting clean cut, and she continued fencing for 2.5 hours despite her arm turning blue from the deep bleeding.

“But I had to try and finish,” she said. “China had not had a female fencer at the worlds in more than 80 years.” Luan won a silver medal and the Chinese had a new hero. Books were written about her, and a movie chronicled her life. (Mike Ulmer, Toronto Sun, September 15, 2000)