At age 53, Turner, who trains at the Fencing Academy of Philadelphia, has won five national saber titles in the Veterans (age 40 and over) classification and captured a Veterans world title in that weapon in 2002.  But she wasn’t exposed to the sport until her daughter took it up.

Jessica Lewis-Turner eventually became an outstanding college fencer; by then, her mother had made her own mark in the sport.

“We took her to places like Little Rock and Sacramento and all these other places for competitions,” Turner recalled, “and I got kind of weary of sitting there and watching and having no idea of what was going on.”

Out of curiosity Turner, who teaches at The Haverford School, just outside Philadelphia, attended a fencing class for adults at the Academy, taught by veteran fencing master Mark Masters. The session was intended to help parents of young fencers become more familiar with the sport.  For Turner, it did far more than that.

“He went through all of the footwork and everything else. Then he suited us up and I got to try to hit somebody and I was hooked That was it… I knew before then that I wanted to do it, but at the end of that day I could feel the aggression and the wanting to hit people. I had the feeling that I might be reasonably good at it.”

That was some 12 years ago and Turner has been infatuated with the sport ever since.

She started out fencing foil, but within two years had switched to saber, a weapon descended from the cavalry sword. To say the least, saber fencers tend to have a more aggressive mindset than their fellows who compete in epee and foil.

 "It is a very intense, very fast high-speed weapon in which you absolutely have to commit yourself to the action,” Turner says. 

“In saber, even if you’re setting up a false action, even if you’re just tricking your opponent, you’ve still got to make (the action). You can’t do little dinky stuff, you can’t just hang around and bounce, you can’t just flow back and forth, you must commit yourself to the action and that’s always been the way I am. I always say to people, if the saber feels right in your hand then that’s your weapon.”
 
Saber is a relatively new event for women. Turner began comepting in the event in the 1994-95 season and fenced in her first national championship in 1996, but the event wasn’t contested at the international level until 1999 and wasn’t added to the Olympic program until 2004.

When Turner won her Veterans world title in saber in 2002, it was classified as a demonstration event (it will have full medal status in 2005). In essence, Turner has grown as a fencer as her event has grown in stature.

She says Masters’ support and encouragement has been vital to her success. “I was lucky to have a coach who took me seriously at my age,” she says. “He brought me along and because women’s saber was just starting out.

"I was growing with the sport.”

Today, Turner is ranked third in the United States in the Veterans category, a classification that includes all fencers age 40 and over.  In addition to competing in veterans’ competitions, she also fences regularly in Division One (national caliber) events.

When she was in high school Turner’s sports participation was limited because of asthma. But she trained for and competed in a marathon when she was in her 20s so intense training is nothing new to her.

She generally fences two days a week and cross trains two other days in addition to competing. “I understand how to subjugate myself to a training regimen,” she says, “and I understand how long it takes to train because the marathon. That took me months and month and months to train for, and I did exactly what I set out to do."

Of course, Turner’s body doesn’t recuperate from injuries as quickly as it did when she was in her 20s; she’s fenced through injury on more than one occasion, most notably at a national tournament when she competed while suffering from a torn calf muscle.

But while she may not the agility and speed of younger opponents, she makes up for it with her knowledge of the game. “ Once you learn how to do it, craftiness works extremely well,” she says. “And if you train hard and your physical conditioning’s good, so you’ve got craftiness and reasonably good conditioning, you can do pretty good.”