Events: Epee, Saber and Foil
Disability Category: A
Height: 5'1"
Weight: 125 lbs
Club: IndySabre, Denver Fencing Center
Coaches: Val Kizik, Nathan Anderson, Les Stawicki and Mickey Zeljkovic
Education: Indiana University - 2019, BSR - Recreational Therapy & BSPA - Nonprofit Management
Occupation: Intern, U.S. Paralympics
Family: Parents Alan and Janet Bouwkamp
Hobbies: Hammocking, wheelchair basketball, hanging out with her dog Roscoe and Netflix comedies
Favorite Fencing Memory: Competing at the 2012 Paralympic Games with her teammates
Current Paralympic Qualifying Ranking: No. 39 (Category A Saber), No. 41 (Category A Epee), No. 48 (Category A Foil)
Honors:
Paralympic Teams: 2012
Wheelchair World Championship Teams: 2019, 2013 (Bronze - Saber), 2011, 2010
Pan American Wheelchair Championship Teams: 2011 (Gold - Foil, Silver - Epee)
Personal: A former able-bodied fencer who was nationally ranked in the Y12 and Y10 age groups, Bouwkamp was born with fibular hemimelia – a condition in which the muscles in her right leg never fully developed. Bouwkamp says that the "muscles in my right leg will always be much weaker than the muscles in my left leg and, when I was born, my leg was two and a half inches shorter than the other one. So at the time I was approached for wheelchair fencing, I had a limb that was shorter than the other one, I was basically missing a muscle in my leg and I had club foot, flat foot which means my ankle doesn’t rotate whatsoever and that foot’s two shoe sizes smaller than the other one. I was still on the national points list as a Y10 fencer, but as I got older, everyone got better and I was getting farther and farther behind.”
Bouwkamp’s experience as an able-bodied fencer helped her earn quick success on the international wheelchair scene where she won National Championships in all three weapons as a 14-year-old in 2010 and defended all three golds in 2011. Although Bouwkamp trained as a saber fencer, women's saber was not contested at the Paralympic Games and she has added foil and epee to her repetoire.
After qualifying for the London Paralympic Games as the youngest member of the USA Fencing Team, Bouwkamp won bronze at the Wheelchair World Championships in August 2013 in the combined saber event.