Amita Marie Nicolette Berthier OLY (born 15 December 2000) is a Singaporean, left-handed foil fencer. She attended the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

from 2018 to 2023, clinching 4 individual NCAA Fencing Championships medals. Representing

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

, Berthier has won 3

SEA Games The Southeast Asian Games, commonly known as SEA Games is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with su ...

gold medals and qualified for 2

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

. On 16 December 2017, Berthier became the first Singaporean fencer to win a Junior World Cup title at the Havana leg in Cuba in the eight-leg series.

Career

In April 2021, Berthier qualified for the Singapore Olympic team at the 2020 Summer Olympics, by winning the Asia-Oceania Olympic Qualification Tournament held in

Tashkent, Uzbekistan Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...

. In doing so, she became the first Singaporean to secure an Olympic spot through a qualifying tournament. Berthier was knocked out in her debut match in the round of 32 by

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Lee Kiefer Lee Kiefer ( ; born June 15, 1994) is an American right-handed foil fencer and three-time Olympic champion in women's foil, having won the individual event at the 2020 Summer Olympics, and the individual and team events at the 2024 Summer Olymp ...

. In 2023, Berthier won a joint-bronze in the women’s foil at the

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Asian Fencing Championships Asian Fencing Championships is the fencing zonal championship organized by the Asian Fencing Confederation for the Asia-Oceania zone. The first Asian Fencing Championships was held in 1973 in Tehran, however, fencing in the continent did not procee ...

held in Wuxi, China. She was then chosen alongside wushu athlete

Jowen Lim Jowen Lim Si Wei (; born: January 6, 1999) is a Singaporean wushu taolu athlete. Career Junior Lim started practicing wushu at the age of six. Between 2010 and 2014 he made three appearances at the World Junior Wushu Championships and be ...

as the flagbearers for the

2022 Asian Games The 2022 Asian Games (), officially the 19th Asian Games () and also known as Hangzhou 2022 ( zh, c=, s=杭州2022, labels=no), were a continental multi-sport event which was held from 23 September to 8 October 2023 in Hangzhou, China. The ...

held at

Hangzhou Hangzhou, , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ; formerly romanized as Hangchow is a sub-provincial city in East China and the capital of Zhejiang province. With a population of 13 million, the municipality comprises ten districts, two counti ...

, China in 2023. Berthier was eliminated in the women’s individual foil quarter-finals.

Paris 2024

On 17 March 2024, Berthier qualified for the Paris Olympics via her individual ranking points. Ranked 28th in the world in the women’s foil, she claimed points at the

International Fencing Federation The International Fencing Federation (''Fédération Internationale d'Escrime'') commonly known by the acronym FIE, is the international Sport governing body, governing body of Olympic Games, Olympic fencing. Today, its head office is at th ...

(FIE) Grand Prix in Washington DC by finishing joint-20th. Berthier returned to Singapore to train with national foil head coach Oleg Matseichuk as her coach. She parted ways with her previous coach Amgad Khazbak also worked with Kiefer and was unable to be with Berthier during tournaments and the Olympics Games due to conflict of interest. Berthier will be training with the Singapore national team's foil head coach, Oleg Matseichuk, for 3 months as part of her preparations for the Paris Olympics. Berthier was again eliminated in the round of 32 after a 13-15 loss to world number 11, United States' Lauren Scruggs.

References

External links

* 2000 births Living people Singaporean female foil fencers Fencers at the 2018 Asian Games Fencers at the 2022 Asian Games Asian Games bronze medalists for Singapore Asian Games bronze medalists in fencing Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games Competitors at the 2019 SEA Games SEA Games medalists in fencing SEA Games gold medalists for Singapore Fencers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic fencers for Singapore 21st-century Singaporean sportswomen Fencers at the 2024 Summer Olympics Notre Dame Fighting Irish fencers {{Singapore-fencing-bio-stub