Laura Flessel-Colovic is a French epee fencer born on November 6, 1971 in Pionte-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe. She is married to a French journalist and has one daughter Leilou, who is seven years old. She juggles her fencing career with another, promoting business travel Paris tourism office that helps her manage her time better and remain focused on the work.
Laura Flessel-Colovic got hooked to fencing at the age of seven, after seeing French legend Jean-Francois Lamour on television. She abandoned her dance classes to join the local fencing club and gradually made her way up through local and regional ranks. She left her family and friends at 19 and moved to Paris to focus on her career. Her hard work and intensive training was amply rewarded when she won the Pan American Championships in 1991, 1992 and 1994. Laura Flessel-Colovic also came third at the 1995 World Championships.
Laura Flessel-Colovic grabbed everyone’s attention with a pair of gold medals at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. She finished as the runner-up in the 1997 World Cup Fencing and followed it up with three world championship titles in 1998 and 1999. She managed to garner a bronze at the World Championships in 2001, after giving birth to her daughter earlier that year. Though she was suspended for testing positive in a drug test, Laura Flessel-Colovic came back strongly and stunned the world at the Athens Olympics in 2004, winning two medals – a silver and a bronze medal in the epee individual and team events, respectively. She also became a two-time winner in the World Cup by claiming the title at individual epee event in 2002 and 2003. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she made it to the Quarterfinals in the Women’s Individual Epee.
Laura Flessel-Colovic was nicknamed “la Guepe-the Wasp” for her aggressive and competitive nature at the grounds. She is the only participant to win five medals among the French female Summer and Winter Olympic medal winners. Her success also turned her into a heroine in the sport pages. Laura Flessel-Colovic joined the French world and European champion soccer team as a positive icon of her country’s multiethnic visage
