Siblings in sports: The upsides of family fighting

Drive down any neighborhood street, and you might see kids shooting hoops in their front yard, playing catch with friends or riding bikes down the street. For Buckeye student-athletes and siblings Miranda and Sammy Freedman of Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan, things were a little different. They would grab a foil, épée or saber, put on their masks, and practice their pastime of choice: fencing. 

“During the pandemic, our parents made us fence in the driveway, and we were always so embarrassed,” says Miranda, a senior studying psychology. “We look back on it and laugh now.”

As siblings often do, Miranda and Sammy, younger by two years, grew up fighting. But instead of the typical living room tussles, they squared off on the fencing strip—a passion they eventually brought to Ohio State. The varsity squad, coached by Donald Anthony Jr. since 2018, sports men’s and women’s teams, with both combining for eight outright conference titles in the past four seasons, including two in February. Three team alumni competed in the Summer Olympics in Paris, including bronze medal winner Eleanor Harvey ’18, a foil fencer for Team Canada.

Besides the Freedmans, twins Miles and Talia Weiss also compete on the team; across the university’s 36 Division I teams, at least 12 pairs of siblings play together. Others include football players Lorenzo Styles Jr. and Sonny Styles, hockey players Joe and Jake Dunlap and soccer-playing twins Jacinda and Jadin Bonham.

The fencers say, instead of competition separating them, it’s brought them closer. “He’s like my best friend,” Miranda says. “It’s great being able to do something you love with your best friend all the time.” Sammy, a second year studying sport industry in the College of Education and Human Ecology, adds: “It’s nice having her by my side. It’s a nice sense of familiarity.”

The pair were introduced to the sport when Sammy was around 4 years old and saw it on television. By the time he was 6, he was fencing, and not long after, Miranda joined the fun. “I didn’t want him to be better than me at something,” she says with a laugh.

Growing up, the siblings fenced for multiple clubs; the family moved from Virginia to New York, before settling in Michigan. Miranda made Team USA’s U17 team not long after and committed to fence at Ohio State in 2021. Two years later, Sammy brought his talents to Columbus, too. “He could have gone wherever he wanted, but we’re here together. That speaks to just how the sport has brought us closer,” Miranda says.

The same goes for Miles and Talia. Both seniors on the squad, the duo has been fencing together their whole lives—following in the footsteps of their older brother, Lewis Weiss ’18, who competed for the Buckeyes from 2015 until he graduated. “I don’t remember a time when fencing wasn’t in my life,” says Miles, who’s majoring in environment, economy, development and sustainability in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. 

When high school came to an end and it was time to move on to collegiate athletics, he says, the choice was clear: Ohio State was the only school that could take both him and his sister, now a senior studying operations management in Fisher College of Business. “We’ve pretty much spent every day together since we were born,” he says. “It was a really important decision for us, and that’s why we became Buckeyes, so that we could stick together.” 

Coach Anthony sees the added value of siblings playing together, both in terms of helping each other improve—both Weisses compete with the épée and both Freedmans compete with foils—and providing emotional and mental support. “One part of it is just knowing you have somebody that you’re connected to on the squad.”

Miles agrees: “It’s like she says the things I need to hear,” he says of his twin sister. “Sometimes, I think she knows me better than I know myself.”