Theresa Offredy

A lifelong member of the Polytechnic Fencing Club, Theresa Offredy was runner-up to fellow Poly member Susan Preston in the 1958 National Junior Foil Championship. The following year, Offredy went to the World Fencing Championships in Budapest, and in 1960 was third in an international event, won by Gillian Sheen, at Brussels. Both girls were selected for that year’s Roma Olympics but Offredy was only a reserve for the British foil team.

Offredy enjoyed one of her finest years in 1961 when, after finishing runner-up in the Desprez Cup, she helped Polytechnic win the British Women’s Team Foil Championship for the first time since 1948. Offredy also won the individual foil title at the four-day Leamington tournament and was that year’s British foil champion for the first time.

The following year Offredy was runner-up in the Desprez Cup again before winning her second British title. Offredy finished sixth in the British Empire and Commonwealth Games at Perth, Australia, before making her Olympic début at Tokyo in 1964, finishing equal seventh with the British foil team.