After Doris Willette was woken up at 2 a.m. in China, all that she could muster in a groggy voice was that she was "really happy" to have made the U.S. women's foil Olympic team.
Willette is currently training in China for the upcoming 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics after she qualified this past month at the 2008 World Fencing Championship. Overall, the United States qualified three teams for Olympic competition -- women's sabre, men's sabre and women's foil.
Penn State's redshirt sophomore qualified as the fourth member of the team, which makes her the alternate. She won't be able to participate in the individual competition, but she can play in the team competition if subbed in.
"I'm so proud of her," sophomore Anastasia Ferdman said yesterday. "It's unbelievable."
When her teammates found out that she would be fencing in the Olympics, they were naturally excited for her -- but not all that surprised.
Willette dominated the foil category last year as a freshman, posting a 33-0 record during the regular season and finishing in first place at the 2007 NCAA foil championship. She also helped to lead the Nittany Lions to an overall first-place finish in the NCCAs.
"I was really happy for her. I was always positive about her making it, and I felt that she could do it," junior Ali Glasser said. "I wasn't surprised because she's a really good fencer and competitor."
Willette didn't compete for the Lions this year and opted to take off a year from school and redshirt this season, so she could train more for the Olympics.
She moved to Budapest, Hungary, for a few months and traveled all across the world to participate in a number of World Cup tournaments.
Since she is only 20, she is still considered a junior fencer, but competed against senior fencers in all of the tournaments. A fencer must compete in senior tournaments to garner a ranking, which is revealed after the final tournament of the season.
The 2008 World Fencing Championship last month was the last tournament in the senior season.
Willette placed sixth in the tournament and earned an overall ranking of fourth, which secured her spot on the 2008 Olympic team.
"It's something which she's tried for. She took a year off of school to make sure that she was doing the right preparation and it paid off," Penn State coach Emmanuil Kaidanov said. "I'm wishing her the very best of luck and we support her."
