BRUCE DICKINSON ROCKS FENCING WORLD: 13TH PLACE FINISH

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Bruce Dickinson, the legendary frontman of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden, proved once again that his talent isn’t confined to music.

The 66-year-old heavy met­al icon com­pet­ed in the Cir­cuit Européen 2025 fenc­ing tour­na­ment in Fâch­es-Thumes­nil, north­ern France, and secured an impres­sive 13th place fin­ish out of 31 par­tic­i­pants in the vet­er­ans cat­e­go­ry.

Fac­ing off against some of Europe’s best, Dick­in­son lost to fenc­ing leg­end Pas­cal Joly­ot, a three-time Olympic medal­ist with a gold in team foil and sil­ver in indi­vid­ual foil from Moscow 1980. Dick­in­son humbly remarked about his for­mi­da­ble oppo­nent: “He is not bad.”

Fenc­ing has been a life­long pas­sion for Dick­in­son, who trained with the British Olympic squad in the 1980s. Speak­ing to La Voix du Nord, he recalled: “The last time I was in Lille, it was in 2000 with Iron Maid­en for world tour rehearsals. Now, I’m here for a vet­er­an fenc­ing com­pe­ti­tion – a foil event for old­er ath­letes, like me.”

The may­or of Fâch­es-Thumes­nil, Patrick Proisy, high­light­ed Dickinson’s par­tic­i­pa­tion as a tes­ta­ment to the local fenc­ing club’s excel­lence, call­ing it “a mark of pride” and shar­ing his excite­ment on Face­book.

This event isn’t Dickinson’s first time excelling out­side music. A for­mer com­mer­cial pilot with over 7,500 hours of fly­ing, he also brews beer. His mul­ti­fac­eted life under­scores a con­nec­tion often over­looked: the syn­er­gy between pro­fes­sion­al music and sports. Both demand dis­ci­pline, cre­ativ­i­ty, and the relent­less pur­suit of mas­tery.

Dick­in­son isn’t alone in bridg­ing these worlds. Chel­cee Grimes, a song­writer for stars like Dua Lipa, also played soc­cer for top clubs like Liv­er­pool and Tot­ten­ham. Julio Igle­sias, one of the best-sell­ing Latin artists in his­to­ry, once kept goal for Real Madrid’s reserve team. And Jack John­son, the renowned singer-song­writer, was a surf­ing prodi­gy who reached the Pipeline Mas­ters finals at just 17.

Bruce Dick­in­son’s jour­ney serves as a reminder: pas­sion and dis­ci­pline tran­scend fields, inspir­ing us all to excel in mul­ti­ple are­nas.