Johan Harmenberg > Quotes

“The aftermath of my success in the World Championship was bitter. One of the key elements of my success was that I had been able to train once a week with national team members during the preceding year [..] I was forbidden to participate in national team training. No real reason was given other than "lack of space." [...] At the time, I had a problem understanding the lack of support from the Swedish fencing establishment. I still have a problem, but I understand it slightly better. It is important to appreciate that Sweden had a world-class epee team even without me and had won the team event at the 1976 Olympics. I seemed to threaten the integrity of that team because I went against all the dogmas that existed at that time.”
― Johan Harmenberg, Epee 2.0: The Birth Of The New Fencing Paradigm

“The final was a different story, unfortunately, since the German Gert Opgenorth broke his blade on my weapon arm and then pushed the whole blade through the arm, nearly to the guard, destroying the main vein. Then he said, "Der Degen gehört mir!" (The epee belongs to me!) and pulled it out. Then it really started to bleed!”
― Johan Harmenberg, Epee 2.0: The Birth Of The New Fencing Paradigm