HOLMES Katharine

General
SPORTING RESEARCH
After finishing fifth at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in the women's team epee event, she decided to investigate why the team had fallen short of winning the gold medal for her senior thesis at Princeton University. In 2017 she published her thesis, 'How Risk Preference and Perception of Action Riskiness in Fencing Affect Learning and Strategy of Fencing Play', which involved her analysing videos of fencers in order to create a predictive model for results and developing a computer programme that simulated common fencing situations. She said the results of her thesis have had an impact on her own performance. "In the end, I found that fencers actually attack less than what is optimal. I adjusted my approach in one-touch overtimes, and my win percentage went from 60% to 88%." (realwomanonline.com, 11 Jul 2019; dataspace.princeton.edu, 01 May 2017)

OTHER ACTIVITIES
In February 2021 she joined the USA Fencing board as an athlete director until the end of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo. She has also served as chairperson of the USA Fencing Athlete Council. In 2020/21 she served as a volunteer assistant coach for the men's fencing team at Princeton University. (usafencing.org, 12 Feb 2021; goprincetontigers.com, 01 Sep 2020)

OCCUPATION
She works as a research assistant at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute at Princeton University in the United States of America. (Facebook profile, 18 Mar 2021)

FURTHER EDUCATION
She plans to begin studying at medical school after the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, enrolling at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York, NY, United States of America. She delayed starting her studies by one year following the postponement of the Games and hopes to graduate in 2025. (teamusa.org, 12 Mar 2021; Instagram profile, 12 Mar 2021; usafencing.org, 12 Feb 2021)