Bethel Park woman to compete in new bladesmith TV competition
Bethel Park resident Nicole Warden realizes her hobby isn’t like many others’ hobbies. It’s not as common as gardening, Crossfit or coin collecting.
Warden wields a knife and uses technique and strength to chop, slice and cut objects in competition, better known as BladeSports.
Her skill with a knife has earned her a spot on History Channel’s new TV show “Forged in Fire: Knife or Death.” The show, hosted by WWE Hall of Famer and former NFL player Bill Goldberg, pits bladesmiths and martial artists against each other in competitive obstacle courses.
Warden, a fifth-grade school teacher in Pittsburgh and a mother of three, will appear on the show April 24.
“I met a lot of great people in the cast,” Warden said. “The crew was wonderful…It was a great experience. Just meeting people and the experience of being on a TV show and seeing what it’s like behind the scenes was great.”
Warden, who has lived in Pittsburgh for 20 years and Bethel Park for five years, started the hobby in 2015 after she met her now-second husband. BladeSports is competitive knife cutting, which utilizes several different skills of the competitors, such as strength, speed, intelligence and technique.
Since she started, she’s competed in several different national competitions, winning one title in 2016 and two in 2017. The competitions are held in Dallas and in Atlanta. Her title at the “Worlds” competition in Atlanta was the first awarded to a women in BladeSports’ history.
“It’s basically an obstacle course with a knife,” Warden said. “We have very set rules as to what type of knife you can use. It’s a timed competition, but there’s lots of safety rules that we follow. The quicker you go through the course the better chance you have of winning, but there’s also points for each target.”
On “Knife or Death,” Warden is sporting pink to raise awareness to breast cancer, since she is a two-time breast cancer survivor herself. Warden was first diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer in 2011. She was cleared after several months, and she thought it would have ended there.
“The doctors told me I had a good shot of never having to deal with cancer again because of how I reacted to the treatment,” she said.
But Warden was diagnosed again with breast cancer three years later. This time, it was Stage 4 cancer, but nine months later her cancer was gone again.
While being a cancer survivor still affects Warden’s life, as she goes to monthly tests and treatment, Warden is able to live a full and active life, as evidenced by her participation in BladeSports.
Photo courtesy of Nicole Warden
Photo courtesy of Nicole Warden
Photo courtesy of Nicole Warden
Nicole Warden chopping a rope in a blade sports competition.
“Almost no one with Stage 4 breast cancer will completely get rid of cancer. Because it was Stage 4, I’m never going to be off the hook again,” Warden said. “I go every three weeks for treatment. This is the life of someone who’s had Stage 4 breast cancer. It never ends.”
By wearing pink on “Knife or Death,” Warden hopes to show people “there is hope” for those diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer.
“For most people with Stage 4, people are always hearing these negative stories about people dying with Stage 4 cancer,” Warden said. “I want people to know there are happy endings and that there are people who overcome Stage 4 cancer.”
The History Channel show premiered April 17 and the episode Warden appears on will be at 10 p.m. April 24.