Noam Mills

Early life Mills was born in Hod Hasharon, and grew up in Kfar Saba, Israel, and is Jewish. She attended Mosenzon High School in Kfar Saba.

Fencing career Mills began practicing fencing at the age of 11, and became a member of Hapoel Kfar Saba, a local fencing club in Israel. Mills commented on fencing: "Being strong is not enough. Fencing is like playing chess while running a 100 metre race." She became the first female Israeli fencer to compete in the épée event at an Olympic level. Although she fell short of the qualifying criteria by the Olympic Committee of Israel, she was allocated one of the three spots reserved for promising youngsters. Mills and Emily Cross became the first Harvard University female fencers. They were the 14th and 15th in Ivy League history, to qualify for the Olympics.

After the Olympics, Mills pursued a bachelor's degree in economics, with a minor in neurobiology, at Harvard University. She competed as the member of Harvard's Women's Fencing Team, and as a freshman in 2008-09 came in second at the NCAA Fencing Championships in women's épée to Courtney Hurley. In 2011, she received the Ivy League NCAA Elite 89 Award, established by the NCAA to recognize the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals for each of the NCAA's 89 championships, with a 3.86 GPA.

In 2009, she took 7th at the 2009 European Fencing Championships in women's épée in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Mills competed at the 2010 European Fencing Championships in Leipzig, Germany, where she won the bronze medal in individual épée. She lost 15–14 in the Round of 32 at the 2011 World Fencing Championships to eventual silver medalist, Sun Yujie of China.