He'd just become a teenager, the world unfolding in front of him, when James Williams decided to get serious about his four-year relationship with fencing.

"It occurred to me around age 13, the more work I put into it, the better I would become," he said. "It was quite the discovery at that age.

"I just decided fencing was something I really, really loved and wanted to dedicate myself to it."

That hard work produced an Olympian. Williams, a 22-year-old Rio Americano High School graduate, is headed to Beijing for the Olympic Games as part of the U.S. Fencing team.

Ted Smith, his long-time coach from the Sacramento Fencing Club, said he isn't surprised.

"He had a natural ability, plus he worked harder than everybody else," Smith said. "He'd do the lesson, like most people, then he'd do an extra one. He'd stay after for extra (work).

"Most kids just don't. You tell them all, that doesn't mean that they do it."

John Williams, James' father, said things clicked when James' mother, Mae, first took their son to the Sacramento Fencing Club when James was 9.

"A curious combination of a very peculiar sport and a personality that embraced it," John Williams said. "He was determined."

Williams, who lives in New York City and is working toward a master's degree in Slavic Cultures at Columbia University, didn't have an easy path onto the Olympic team.

For about an hour one day in late May, he was pretty sure he'd botched his chance to go to Beijing.

Williams entered the U.S. National Championships in Portland, Ore., the last of a series of Olympic qualifying competitions, ranked third in points among sabrists, with the top four making the team.

After finishing 10th in the Portland event, as he walked upstairs to give a urine sample to the United States Anti-Doping Agency, Williams thought his Olympic dream was over.

"I just wanted it so much," he said. "I was putting a tremendous amount of pressure on myself.

"I was pretty sure I'd failed to qualify for this Olympics. It was sort of a heartbreaking and devastating thing.

"It was sort of sad after having worked so hard."

When Williams returned downstairs, he discovered he'd slipped only to fourth in the point standings, good enough to make the Olympic team.

"It was incredible, sort of a sense of relief," said Williams, who will compete only in the men's team sabre competition.

"I'd started the day high, really a ramped-up emotional level. Somewhere in the middle of the day, I hit bottom, and then I sort of came back to six out of 10. I was sort of exhausted."

What makes a good fencer? Williams rattles off a list of traits that serve him well.

Agility … leg strength … explosiveness … foot speed … fast-twitch muscles … hand-eye coordination.

And then he lets slip a little secret: what's inside can override all those attributes.

"I'd say all the physical traits I've just mentioned will be trumped by somebody with enough tenacity," he said. "Strategic thinking is a must. Determination is very important."

The 6-foot 1 3/4-inch Williams competes left-handed, which he and Smith say creates an advantage.

"The distance changes subtly," said Smith, who said a disproportionate number of successful fencers and martial artists are left-handers.

"I just think they tend to think differently. … How they process information, that seems to be consistent."

Williams said six of the eight sabrists on the U.S. men's and women's Olympic teams are left-handed.

"Our brains work differently," he said.

Williams was a finalist at Junior World Cup events in 2002 and 2003, earned a silver medal at the Pan American Games in 2007 and was a finalist at the Moscow Senior Grand Prix earlier this year.

The Olympics, though, represent the pinnacle.

"It's the strongest team we've ever had going into the Olympics," Williams said. "I'm very optimistic about our chances to win some medals.

"It's incredible. I get giddy still when I think about it."

Call The Bee's John Schumacher, (916) 326-5523.