Holder hoping to relight fire of London 2012 at Cardiff Europeans

The Harrogate star, 22, was first inspired to take to the piste as an eight-year-old after watching the Paralympics on home soil 14 years ago.

She will now arrive in the Welsh capital as an established member of a youthful British Fencing team, making history last year by winning the nation’s maiden global medal in a women’s team epee event alongside close friend Gemma Collis in Indonesia.

Holder competed at a Cardiff World Cup event two years ago where there were hundreds of young schoolchildren in attendance.

And ahead of this year’s continental showpiece in the same city, she wants to have a similar impact to the one she experienced during that storied London summer.

“I watched London 2012 when I was eight and felt inspired to go and do sport,” she said.

“I did both fencing and swimming nationally for six years, but decided to put my all into fencing.

“The World Cup event was brilliant – if they do that again it will be amazing because you get to show little kids what you can do.

“That’s the biggest thing for me - if you’ve got a dream, go and do it. There's nothing going to stop you from doing your dream as long as you put your all into it.

“I know what it feels like to be an eight-year-old watching the Paralympics – I was starstruck and thought it was amazing.

“Before that, I didn’t really realise parasport actually existed.

“I want to do amazing things, but I also now want to show the little versions of me and little children, and even just anybody younger than me, if you put your mind to something, you can go do it.

“No matter who you are, what you're doing or what sport you want to do – you can do it.”

Next month’s event will take place at the Sport Wales National Centre and marks the first time the European Championships have been held in Cardiff.

Holder has navigated her way through an extremely busy few years, splitting her time between Harrogate, York, Newcastle, London, Bath and beyond owing to her fencing and academic commitments.

The Yorkshire star graduated from the University of York with a 2:1 in Business Management this summer, having juggled her studies with international competitions in the likes of Indonesia, Thailand and the United States.

Having also travelled between Harrogate, London and Durham to train growing up, Holder is currently based in York but spends four days a week in Bath – the home of British Fencing – for training.

While her boyfriend – Nat Smithies, who also fences having met Holder at university – is based in Newcastle, with Holder racking up the miles on the road to travel between there and York.

She admits it’s been a delicate balancing act but is buzzing for the prospect of Cardiff and flying the British flag on home soil.

“It’s been a challenge, but I’m so pleased I went to uni and everyone was so supportive,” she added.

“Everybody, in particular all my family, have always been so accommodating and helpful to enable me to pursue my career.

“Cardiff is going to be amazing because I’ve got friends and family that can come watch, when they’re usually not able to for international competition.

“It’s amazing that Cardiff are hosting this – we always get to watch those home crowds when we go away and they have people supporting.

“The buzz and the coverage will be amazing – and I absolutely thrive off that.

“Fencing is a really loud sport anyway – it’s so exciting and so fun.

“I'm going to win, but I either win or I learn something.”

The Para Fencing European Championships will be held in Cardiff on the 6th-11th October 2026, seeing athletes from across Europe compete in the first qualification event for the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympic Games. For more information and tickets visit here