Sometimes reading fantasy has surprisingly positive results.  Fourteen year old Emma Peterson, a Junior Olympian and the top-ranked epee-fencer in the US in her age division, traces her initial interest in the sport to her love of fantasy fiction:

She came to the sport while still a student at Calthorp Elementary School. She had a writing partner to whom she would send letters anonymously. Professing her love for reading fantasy fiction that often told stories of protagonists wielding swords against formidable enemies, her partner suggested she learn to fence. Peterson came home that day and promptly asked her mother, Margie Peterson, what fencing was.