Gay Penn State athlete was inspired by ‘Heated Rivalry’ — in more ways than one
Gay Penn State athlete found inspiration in 'Heated Rivalry,' particularly the portrayal by Hudson Williams of an athlete of Asian descent.
Mark
Zachary Suico has experienced firsthand the importance of LGBTQ representation in athletics.
Yet the Penn State fencer was actually inspired by a story from another sport, ice hockey.
“I was in a little bit of a slump my junior year,” Suico told Outsports. “I had a lot of personal stuff going on, I didn’t know what direction I was going in with my life.
“This might sound really stupid, but when I was on Twitter, there’s people talking about this adaptation for a book that’s coming out soon on TV. I enjoy these adaptations, like I really liked Red, White, and Royal Blue, let me read this book.
“The book was Heated Rivalry.
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“I read the book, and I watched the show, and honestly, I very much understand the idea that representation does matter. But when Heat of Rivalry came out, I think on a personal level, it hit very differently.”
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For Suico, Rachel Reids’ novels had a double impact, both as an athlete and as an Asian-American.
The series features the protagonist Shane Hollander, portrayed in the HBO adaptation by Hudson Williams, an actor of Korean descent.
“The main character is like a gay Asian male who is competing amongst a lot of amazing people,” Suico continued. “A lot about the show really resonated w
ith me, and I felt very represented at that moment.
“Hudson Williams’ portrayal of the character made me feel very supported in my life, and more confident in myself and what I wanted to do.”
Pushed into fencing and finding passion for the sport
Zachary Suico‘s journey into the world of fencing started in high school as a brief obligation that evolved into a passion taking him around the world.
Because his physical education teacher also coached a fencing club outside of his high school, she incorporated the sport into her curriculum.
“She had us try it for a week, and she was like, ‘Oh, you’re pretty good, do you want to try it outside of school?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, that sounds so much fun, because fencing seems super cool.’
“I started at a small club, and then I transitioned into other bigger clubs, and I got to compete nationally amongst other U.S. competitors. Then I actually also got to travel internationally and compete in Europe.”
While Suico was drawn to fencing for his enjoyment of the sport, he confessed training for collegiate competition requires a lot of time and discipline, starting at the crack of dawn.
“In the morning, it’s like a one or one-and-a-half hour lift at 7 a.m. We do regular warmup, running warmup, and then regular lift. It’ll be whole body or upper body, lower body, depending on what point in the season we’re in.”
On top of this daily morning routine, Suico has longer, more involved practices later in the day.
“For our regular practice, we usually do two and a half hours every weekday, so from 4:00 pm to 6:30 pm. We do a warm-up for like 30 minutes, then we do footwork, which is like fencing agility drills. Basically, we’ll do agility training, we’ll do technical lessons, which are like practicing certain actions or movements with our stuff on with each other. Then we do drills, and then usually at the end we’ll do competitive fencing, which is like us fencing each other.”
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And the way that Shane Hollander encouraged Suico to be a better openly gay athlete, he would also like to encourage others to explore his favorite sport.
“Any athlete that wants to try fencing, I think that the biggest thing would be, honestly, just to try it. It feels really weird to do at first, it’s a very unnatural sport for the body, but I just encourage people to have fun and like make connections within the club that you go to.”
Ultimately, for Suico, the world of fencing shares a major connection with queer culture.
“A big part of fencing is the community.”
You can follow Zachary Suico on Instagram.
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