Victor Alvares de Oliveira: "My plan was to establish fencing in Cape Verde to develop the sport for kids"
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas provided the escape from a hospital bed that Cape Verde’s Victor Alvares de Oliveira craved growing up in the French city of Reims.
Severe asthma meant Alvares de Oliveira had to spend large portions of his formative years in the confines of paediatric wards. Subseuqnely, he lived vicariously through the sword-fighting exploits of D'Artagnan and the musketeers.
Despite doctors giving him little to no chance of ever practising sport seriously, the young boy ended up as a fencer – whether by chance or by design – just like the heroes from his books.
To add to this real-life fairytale, he will represent his father’s birth country, Cape Verde, at Paris 2024, becoming the African nation's first-ever fencer at the Olympic Games.
While most of the doctors who treated Alvares de Oliveira reminded the youngster of his limitations due to his condition, one physician encouraged him to test the boundaries.
“He was the only one believing in me, saying, ‘Okay, you can do stuff. It's going to be hard. It may be impossible. So don't be hard on yourself,” Alvares de Oliveira told Olympics.com.
To add insult to injury, the future athlete also suffered from severe reactions to pollen, making it virtually impossible for him to practice outdoor sports. He picked up the foil for the first time and from then on out, it was all about fencing.
Alvares de Oliveira putting in double the effort
By this time, Alvares de Oliveira’s asthma symptoms had already shown improvement. Taking part in sports provided him with the platform to test his limits.
“I still had to do twice the effort of other athletes when we were doing exercises. But my asthma was getting better,” Alvares de Oliveira recalled.
“I was more demanding with my body, and I had to handle myself and the fact that I wanted to push more. I had the balance in between doing the best I can. Going further than the others, but not too much in the red zone.”
While Alvares de Oliveira still suffered from the odd asthma attack, he had largely brought it under control thanks to the help of doctors and other medical experts.
Managing his condition in the ‘smart way’ had enabled the Reims native to reach the top level of foil, joining the French national side on training camps and moving from his home town to Paris in pursuit of his Olympic dream.
“That's one thing I always tell everybody I meet, especially the young kids that ask for advice, ‘Whatever you do, do it 100 percent. Just go for it and trust yourself,” he said.
“You don't need to do too much at once to achieve quality. You need a bit of consistency, which helped me with my issues.”
While making ground in one of the quintessential French sports, Alvares de Oliveira also wanted to pay homage to the other part of his heritage. His mother had Spanish and Portuguese roots while his father grew up in Cape Verde.
Growing up, Alvares de Oliveira embraced the Cape Verdean culture by visiting his extended family on the archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Cape Verdean Olympic committee caught wind of Alvares de Oliveira’s fencing talents and offered him the chance to represent them. He decided to honour the call to help grow the sport in the country and switched allegiances with the hope of representing Cape Verde on the biggest stage of all – the Olympic Games.
“I decided in 2018 to accept the link with the Cape Verde national sports federation. The plan was to establish fencing in Cape Verde to develop the sport for kids,” Alvares de Oliveira said.
“And I was like, ‘Okay, I'm going to take the lead with the family connection and I'm going to make myself free by making this choice. I did the first competition for Cape Verde with the International Fencing. So that was the beginning.”
Becoming Cape Verde's first professional fencer
By the end of 2019, Alvares de Oliveira started competing for Cape Verde on the World Cup circuit, becoming the first professional fencer to fight for the tiny nation with a population of 600,000 people.
“I'm happy to break new ground for future generations of Cape Verdean youngsters interested in fencing,” Alvares de Oliveira said.
“I'm currently the only professional fencer from Cape Verde. We now have a few people that are doing fencing in Cape Verde. We also have connections with schools because that's the goal to open opportunities for kids in the sport.”
The elite athlete came painstakingly close to realising his and Cape Verde’s Olympic dreams at the 2021 African qualifying event where he bowed the knee to Algeria’s Salim Heroui in the men’s foil final.
He has since represented Cape Verde at the 2023 World Championships where he finished 78th out of 177 competitors in Milan, Italy. At the recent African qualifying event, Alvares de Oliveira finished sixth despite a niggling knee injury.
Creating a buzz about fencing
News about Alvares de Oliveira representing the country in fencing had created some buzz among Cape Verdeans.
“Some people would say, ‘Somebody qualified for fencing?’ The good thing is that when people don’t know much about something they would ask you to tell them more," he continued.
“It's cool because they see potential in it even if it's just one percent. It is something new with new opportunities and new possibilities.
“Some people are happy that somebody is representing Cape Verde and they are supporting. That’s an amazing feeling.”
Back in Paris, he is looking to put the finishing touches on his preparations for what will effectively be his ‘home’ Olympics. He will compete at the upcoming African Fencing Championships in Casablanca, Morocco on 8 June.
Alvares de Oliveira describes qualifying for the Olympics as a dream come true and a one-in-a-million opportunity to compete at the Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées, one of the iconic pieces of architecture in Paris.
*“*I was very happy, but also relieved because it's a dream, a goal, a target,” Alvares de Oliveira said.
“It's cool because now I get to go to a big event at home with family, and friends and also compete in one of the historical buildings where I have the pleasure to be at the Olympics. I used to see it, dream it.
I watched these competitions (at Grand Palais) when I was younger as a fan. And now I'll be the one inside with the opportunity to enjoy the event. It's amazing!”