Before she became the country’s fencing prodigy, Maxine Esteban tried to live the ambition of many young girls: To become a figure skater. At the age of six, she began to spend most of her days in the skating rink, gliding and vying to be the next local ice skating talent. When the SM Megamall Ice Skating Rink closed down in 2009, Esteban was determined to continue skating and tried training at another rink in the SM Mall of Asia. However, because of heavy traffic and the mall’s distance from her house, the frustrated figure skater was forced to find a new sport that would allow her to live out her athletic dreams.
Esteban tried other sports, but nothing particularly interested her. However, after seeing tarpaulin advertisements for fencing on her way to a tutor in Xavier School, she immediately knew that she had to try the sport. Her intuition proved to be right and Esteban quickly fell in love with fencing.
“[Fencing] really made me happy—not just the sport, but also the environment,” Esteban shares.
Unfortunately, Esteban’s fencing career almost ended before it even fully bloomed. One rainy day when she was 16 years old, Esteban was carrying three glass bottles when she accidentally slipped on the wet floor and fell. It was at this moment when tragedy struck: Her right hand absorbed her fall and the shards of broken glass. Esteban’s hand suffered 12 damaged tendons and two damaged nerves, requiring surgery and months of physical therapy.
The injury hampered Esteban’s day-to-day life—she was barely strong enough to lift a feather. More crushing, however, was her doctor’s advice: Esteban was told that she should not fence anymore. But the fencing star did not—and could not—take no for an answer.
For six months, she went to physical therapy twice a day and trained her non-dominant hand for competition. Esteban eventually gained enough strength to compete using her left hand while her right was recovering. Despite her doctor’s advice and the possibility that her preferred hand may never recover, the headstrong athlete returned to the piste at full strength.
“[The injury] made me stronger as a person,” recalls Esteban. “[It gave me] the fight to treat a minor setback as a major comeback.”
Lunge
After an illustrious high school career that included seeding number one in both the junior and senior divisions for fencing in the entire country, Esteban had to decide where she would spend her university years. Many schools around Metro Manila courted her, but no one committed to giving her a spot on their fencing teams. It wasn’t until Ateneo Women’s Fencing Team Head Coach Walter Torres approached her that she became convinced to fence for the Blue and White.
“[Coach Torres] said that he would really help and give me lessons every day to make me a better fencer. I really saw that he wanted me to be on the team—unlike the other schools that offered lang,” recalls Esteban. “He really treated me like a daughter.”
Esteban fondly remembers her rookie year in Season 81 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP). “We didn’t expect to win. The [University of the East Lady Warriors] were very strong. They had been champions for 13 years and we were [only few] in the team [so it seemed] hard for us to get the championship,” Esteban says.
Despite lacking the skills on paper to match the Lady Warriors, Esteban and her team’s heart gave them the strength to win the championship. She ended her rookie year in outstanding fashion, garnering three gold medals, one bronze medal, the Rookie of the Year award, and the Most Valuable Player trophy.
Parry
This season, Esteban is the lone veteran on the Women’s Fencing Team. Alongside her are a cluster of fencers: Esteban’s fellow sophomores who are only about to begin their UAAP fencing journey this year. Esteban admits that a two-peat might be a difficult feat due to the team’s inexperience, but she is confident that they will fight tooth and nail to defend the crown.
However, Esteban has bigger goals for Ateneo Fencing beyond Season 82. With four more years of eligibility left in the UAAP, Esteban is determined to pull off a five-peat.
“I don’t think Ateneo has [ever] been five-peat champions, let alone back-to-back [champions], so I would want to defend our title as much as we can,” Esteban says.
Allez
Not only does Esteban don the Blue and White, but she also carries the nation’s flag. This December, she will be participating in the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games which will be held in the Philippines. Having represented the Philippines in the SEA Games two years ago, Esteban says the stakes are much higher this time around.
“It was the first time [for a Philippine Fencing Team] to join the SEA Games, so there was no pressure for us [then],” says Esteban. “But because we’re hosting [this year] and we won two years ago, the pressure is much, much bigger. Our coach is telling us that we have to win.”
Esteban also has her eyes set on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics—the most prestigious sporting event in the world. With the qualifying season in full swing, there are three ways for Esteban to seal an Olympic spot: Be among the top 16 in the world, be the number one ranked fencer in Asia, or to win gold in the Olympic Qualifiers. Esteban is focused on being number one in Asia at the moment, as she is currently seeded fourth in the category. If she is unable to achieve this, she still has a good chance in the Olympic Qualifiers.
The path to Tokyo will be difficult—only an incredibly small number of people in history can call themselves olympians—but Esteban’s perseverance in overcoming every hurdle she has encountered bodes well for her chances. At just 18 years old, it is safe to call Maxine Esteban the future—both for Ateneo and Philippine fencing.
