Chrystall Nicoll: Scrupulous Sabreur

The artisan world of fencing, which Chrystall Nicoll has left an indelible mark upon over the course of 2010 with some impressive performances, throws up a number of connotations. Grace, balance and poise are non-negotiable for any competitor, and a thorough technical awareness is also essential.

As the number-one British woman in the sabre category, Nicoll possesses all of these, and is set apart yet further by a striking meticulousness. With back-to-back bronze medals at World Cup events in Klagenfurt and Koblenz back in the spring, she paved the way for two very respectable showings later in the year.

Seventeenth place at Leipzig’s European Championships in July was nicely consolidated by an equally strong effort in Paris last month, where Nicoll fell marginally short of sneaking into the top twenty at the Championnats du Monde. Now standing proud at twenty-fifth place in the world rankings, an improvement of 12 places on last season, she reflects pragmatically on what has been an eye-catching assault on the very pinnacle of sport.

“I’ve been training really hard and the benefits are just starting to come out now,” she explains unassumingly. “I was a bit unsettled for a couple of years when I had to swap coaches but now I’ve got a strong base at my club with regular sparring partners. They say it takes a hundred thousand hours of practice before you start doing things instinctively and I’m probably coming up to that!”

Although Nicoll breaks into a giggle when qualifying her last point, her evidently thorough approach to training compels one to believe that it is not entirely fanciful. Continuing to describe a new-found fascination with the psychological intricacies of top-level competition, it becomes apparent that her successful voyage to recognition has been mapped out with methodical precision.

“Spending time with psychologists has helped everything come together,” Nicoll continues with foresight beyond her years. “I sometimes used to over-analyse quite a lot and now I am just trying to focus on relaxing and enjoying myself.

“It sounds really silly but if you try too hard to win I guess it can hamper you because you’re just tense and desperate to get that result. At that point, natural instincts don’t flow. Obviously I’m still competitive and still want to win every hit but this new approach seems to have paid off so far.”

Every word spoken by this remarkably mature 24 year-old is laced with such acuity that it would be easy to assume that fencing is a full-time profession for her. This is far from the case. In order to finance her fencing, Nicoll spends 33 hours a week in an extremely different capacity, working in the sales department of Coca-Cola. Given that the majority of her rivals at the very top of the sport are unhindered by an ulterior need for a professional platform, many would regard such employment as a frustration.

However, despite admitting that she would “ideally like to get to a stage where I have more time to spend on things like physiotherapy and conditioning training,” Nicoll’s account of her job is not laced with resignation. Instead, with the practicality that obliged her to spend �400 prize money on a carpet for a new flat back in 2007, she feels rather heartened by this other string to her bow.

“Sometimes it gets really stressful when you’re tired because on a normal day I will be at work from eight until four before training between seven and ten. I do think that it is good for you to have something other than your sport, though, even if it’s just so that your brain can have a bit of downtime. If you’re constantly training and competing, it can be very claustrophobic.

“I have tried to develop myself career-wise away from fencing. My funding (from British Fencing) gets reviewed in December and maybe I can reduce my hours a little bit at least to allow me to try and actively search for sponsorship.

“There are a lot of factors to consider when I think whether or not to go full-time with fencing and most of them will revolve around how that will affect my career. They are the same pressures everybody else faces, just slightly more complicated.”

Aided by this steady and grounded perspective, a fencing journey that started as a “social thing with my mum” down in Dorset, stopping by Millfield School along the way, is now set to accelerate towards what could be its crowning glory at the London Olympics. Indeed for all the versatility and stability that her position at Coca-Cola gives her, Nicoll is itching to give her all to the 2012 trail.

When you’re going into a competition, you want all your focus to be on that, rather than anything else that might be distracting,” she finishes. “I don’t want to be thinking about changing my email to an out office setting or what voicemails I might have in my inbox.

“This coming season is all about qualifying and I’m confident about producing the results. Then, my goal for myself is to get a medal. So fingers crossed!”

If Nicoll is successful, it will be the first time any British fencer has secured an Olympic medal since the 1964 Tokyo Games. There will be no need to inform her of that fact though. She is far too scrupulous, and determined to put the record straight, not to be aware of it already.

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Chrystall Nicoll was appearing for the launch of the Gold Challenge.

Gold Challenge is the official mass participation legacy initiative for London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, launched at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London. Gold Challenge aims to harness the inspiration of the 2012 Games to motivate people in the UK to take up as many Olympic and Paralympic sports as they can.