Susie Seddon-Cowell will cap a tale of resilience and sheer ‘bloody-mindedness’ when she takes to the piste at the Para Fencing European Championships next week. The Crosby athlete, 28, is one of 14 British stars descending on Cardiff for the first continental Paralympic qualification event ahead of LA2028.
Difficult journey to the international stage
Seddon-Cowell has endured a hugely difficult journey to reach the bright international lights, battling internal barriers to set up a para fencing pathway alongside coach Alex McLeod while studying for a Masters degree in Palaeontology and Geobiology at the University of Edinburgh. Having first started the sport at Liverpool’s Dolphin Fencing Club – who recently celebrated their 70th anniversary – in 2010, Seddon-Cowell was instrumental in propelling para fencing forward in the Scottish capital before moving to Bath where she now trains with the British team.
The Merseyside star was proud to reflect on her journey and hopes years of persistence can now reap major rewards at a European showpiece on home soil.
Community support and persistence
“Growing up at Dolphin really supported my development,” said Seddon-Cowell, who also completed her undergraduate degree in Microbiology and Biotechnology at the University of York. “They instilled a real joy of the sport in me and were so supportive – it was a real kind of community feel.”
“Me and Alex really hit it off and we kind of thought ‘okay, let's see what we can do.’ But there was a lot of working around the limitations that we had, so it was incredibly difficult.”
McLeod, founder and coach at Dunedin Fencing Club in Scotland, added: “Susie was really the catalyst who got wheelchair fencing going in Edinburgh. The lengths she went to and the feathers she ruffled to get the equipment we needed to train was scary, to be honest. That was one of the reasons why I thought ‘I really want to support this person’.”
First European Championships in Cardiff
“It was just sheer bloody persistence - Susie's got such incredible drive to do it and that's a really rare thing. Lots of people enjoy the sport, but there's few people who I’ve met who have the bloody-mindedness to push through the barriers that are required to get there to be a top athlete in the country. It was really a privilege to spend that time learning together and see that work has come to fruition. I'm really proud that she's got where she's got to.”
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. Seddon-Cowell joined the University of Bath-based Wheelchair Fencing World Class Programme (WCP) in 2025, juggling her career with a PhD Research Programme in Mechanical Engineering. She only took up para fencing four years ago and while being self-funded until last year, has flown the British flag at both the World and European Championships.
Growing domestic scene and home support
She will now do the same on home soil, having seen the women’s para fencing scene grow exponentially over the last few years since her debut. Seddon-Cowell added: “It’s been really awesome to see how the domestic scene has grown. When I got started it was very small, but domestically last year, we had over 20 athletes competing.”
“I've come on a lot as an athlete [since the last Europeans]. Since then, I’ve got a lot better access to training, coaching and sparring. Having a major championships at home is awesome – we competed in Cardiff for a World Cup event in 2024 and it’s really special to have that home support. Every competition, I learn something new to build on and learn from – so I just hope that that continues.”
The Para Fencing European Championships, supported by funding from UK Sport through The National Lottery, and Welsh Government, 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.
