Maxine Isabel Esteban (born November 26, 2000) is a Filipino–Ivorian fencer. She is a 2023 African bronze medalist in women's foil.

Esteban represented the Philippines before transferring to the Ivory Coast as a naturalized citizen in 2022. During her tenure under the Philippine flag, she became a 2017 Southeast Asian foil bronze medalist, as well as a 2019 and 2021 team foil silver medalist. She was also the country's highest-ranked fencer at 62nd in the world. 

At present, Esteban is globally ranked 39th, per the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime.

Education
Esteban studied at the Immaculate Conception Academy in Greenhills for high school, graduating in 2018. She pursued a course in management engineering at the Ateneo de Manila University. She later attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she graduated with an undergraduate degree in applied arts and science, achieving summa cum laude honors in 2023.

Career

Early years
As a child, Esteban initially pursued an interest in figure skating at the ice skating rink in SM Megamall. However, due to the rink's closure and a lack of nearby alternatives, she dropped the sport and  instead convinced her parents to allow her to enter a fencing club at Xavier School. 

Esteban then began her fencing career at age 12 by competing in local competitions.

Collegiate
Esteban competed for the Ateneo Blue Eagles fencing team at the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP). She was named Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player for Season 81 in 2018. Maxine led the Ateneo Women's Fencing team to win the UAAP Season 81 overall championships breaking the 11-year reign of the University of the East. In the following year, she was conferred the Moro Lorenzo Award for Excellence in Sports, as well as the Lady Eagle of the Year Awardee by her own university.

Esteban last competed for the Ateneo in February 2020, where she defended her title in the women's foil individual event. The university ultimately placed third in the UAAP Season 82 fencing tournament. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all sporting events for Season 83 were cancelled.

National team

Philippines
Esteban competed in women's foil and represented the Philippines until 2022. She was ranked 16th at the peak of her junior career and 62nd in the senior category, the highest ever  for a Filipino fencer. 

At the 2018 FIE Junior World Cup in Guatemala City, she won a bronze medal.

Esteban also competed at the Southeast Asian Games, having won a bronze medal in the 2017 edition for the Philippines in foil. She also clinched a bronze and silver in the team foil event with teammates in the 2019 and 2021 editions respectively.

She aspires to qualify for the Olympics. Her family tapped the service of Italian coach Andrea Magro in 2020 to aid her training.

Esteban became the first Filipino to win a medal in a FIE satellite event when she finished as a bronze medalist at the 2021 FIE Tournoi Satellite in Copenhagen, Denmark. She also won the silver medal in the FIE satellite event in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
She took part in the 2022 World Seniors Cup in Serbia where she finished 38th in foil. She also took part in the World Seniors Cup in Tauberbiscofsheim Germany where she finished 44th in foil. At the Asian Fencing Championship, she finished 11th in foil, the highest among the all Philippine delegation competitors.
 
She competed at the 2022 World Fencing Championships in July but suffered a ACL and PCL injury. She would be fit again by the start of 2023.

Ivory Coast
Esteban would be given Ivorian citizenship through naturalization. In May 2023, she switched her sporting nationality to be able to represent Ivory Coast internationally. The move was approved by the Philippine Fencing Association which waived the 3-year waiting period requirement allowing her to compete for the African nation immediately. Her move was supported by the Philippine Olympic Committee.

Her first podium finish for the West African country was at the 2023 African Fencing Championships in Cairo, Egypt where she clinched a bronze medal in foil.

Esteban would later explained her sporting nationality change as about "self-respect" and an act "to walk away from something that doesn’t value her worth" and she has tried to kept competing for the Philippines for as long as "humanly possible".

Personal life
Esteban is a Filipino of Chinese descent. She also plays the violin and paints as hobbies outside of fencing.

Prior to her sporting nationality change, she had already been holding clinics for fencers in Cote d’Ivoire.

She aspires to be a doctor one day.

Medal record

National team

For the Philippines

FIE Tournoi Satellite

FIE Junior World Cup

Southeast Asian Games

For Ivory Coast

African Fencing Championship

College

UAAP Championship
All results has been for the Ateneo Blue Eagles.

External links

References

Filipino female foil fencers
Ivorian female fencers
Ivorian people of Filipino descent
Filipino people of Chinese descent
Competitors at the 2021 SEA Games
Competitors at the 2019 SEA Games
SEA Games medalists in fencing
Ateneo de Manila University alumni
University of Pennsylvania alumni
Fencers at the 2018 Asian Games
SEA Games bronze medalists for the Philippines
SEA Games silver medalists for the Philippines
2000 births

Living people
Naturalised sports competitors