Wallingford native Jake Hoyle took a different path to the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, writes Mike Sielski for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Hoyle’s personal coach, Aladar Kogler, calls his Olympic qualification a miracle, showing just how talented he is.

Fencing practitioners usually enter the sport at age 8 or 9.

But the 27-year-old never even heard of the words parry and riposte until he was in sixth grade at Strath Haven Middle School and joined the Wallingford/Swarthmore Panthers fencing club.

He entered his first tournament at 13, younger than the allowable age.

He won.

He toughed it out in high school, even though fencing wasn’t celebrated like football or basketball.

“It’s not cool to be a fencer. Maybe it is now, but when I was in high school, I was getting made fun of, teased,” Hoyle said.

He went on to win the NCAA championship men’s epee as a junior and senior at Columbia University in 2015 and 2016.

Now, it’s the Olympics. Hoyle’s father couldn’t be prouder.

“The achievement of becoming an Olympian is the pinnacle of a career, regardless of how you do,” Charlie Hoyle said.

Read more about Jake Hoyle in The Philadelphia Inquirer.