by Dylan Bothamley Samantha Catantan was born on February 1, 2002, to Jon and Aileen Catantan in Quezon City, Philippines. She began her fencing journey at the age of nine when she joined the Quezon City Sports Enhancement Program.
She is the oldest of four sisters, and fencing acumen appears in the family. Along with younger sisters Ysah and Sophia, the Catantan’s became the first three siblings to join the Philippines national foil fencing team.
Samantha was a precocious competitor in the sport, first qualifying for the national team at age 15 and later winning a silver medal at the South East Asian Games in 2017 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
She medaled again in 2019, bringing home the bronze.
She honed her craft further fencing at the high school level at the University of the East (UE), where she became an MVP for the UE Junior Warriors, leading the team to multiple championships.
Catantan’s journey continued when she traveled to the United States to study and fence at Penn State University.
Competing in the NCAA, she made history as the first native Filipino fencer to participate in the NCAA Fencing Championships.
In her 2021 rookie year, she secured a third-place trophy and an All-America selection in women’s foil. She would bring home the gold when she competed in the 2021 Vietnam Southeast Asian Games.
Only a year ago, things took a scary turn when Catantan tore her ACL during the semifinals of the 2023 South East Asian Games.
She could not return to action for eight months, and for a brief time, her Olympic hopes looked to be at risk.
However her rehab program was highly successful, and upon returning to Penn State, she found her form and finished the NCAA season ranked 10th overall.
After the frightening encounter with injury, Catantan’s Olympic hopes were back on track, and she earned an invitation to the Asia and Oceania Zonal Qualifying Tournament.
Catantan performed well in the tournament and found herself in the finals, within striking distance of a lifelong dream.
With a trip to the Olympics on the line, she squared off against Kazakhstan’s Sofiya Aktayeva in a white-knuckle showdown. Catantan found herself trailing 9-12 in the third and final round of the match but battled back to a tie at 14-14.
The first to 15 points would be victorious; the match had become a sudden-death affair. The entire match is worth watching, but the final point demonstrated what a fierce competitor Catantan is.
For most of the match, Catantan practiced a reserved style, allowing Aktayeva to be the aggressor, often retreating further and further into defense on her own side of the strip.
Catantan would look to score points with sublime counter-parries when Aktayeva would lunge in attack.
But tied 14-14 with a trip to the Olympics on the line, Catantan underwent a transformation. She pushed furiously towards Aktayeva forcing the action deep into Aktayeva’s side of the strip.
Catantan used several short lunges paired with high feints, forcing Aktayeva to parry repeatedly.
After Aktayeva parried a seventh straight feint to the upper body, Catantan slashed downward towards the exposed lower body. As Aktayeva moved to parry this threat, Catantan executed a lighting-fast thrust to the now exposed upper body and punched a ticked to the Olympics with the winning point.
Samantha “Sam” Catantan will be the first Filipino fencer to compete in the Olympics since Walter Torres in the 1992 Barcelona games.
This creates the exciting possibility that Sam Catantan could face Filipina American Lee Keifer, who will fence individual foil for the US National team.
Keifer is a highly accomplished fencer with a very different style from Catantan, relying on blinding speed and athleticism.
Whether the two will face off, it will be a fascinating subplot to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
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