Matteo Tagliariol (pictured, right) came into his first Olympics with dreams of being a modern day d'Artagnan and bringing home Italy's first gold medal in this event in 48 years. Fabrice Jeannet came to Beijing to best his 5th place finish in 2004 and secure his name among France's great fencers.
(Sada Jacobson, Mariel Zagunis, and Becca Ward share the podium. Photo courtesy FencingPhotos.com)
Mariel Zagunis reclaimed the gold medal in a repeat of her 2004 performance. Zagunis defeated teammate Sada Jacobson 15-8 to claim the gold medal. The US women completed an historic sweep of the medals as teammate Rebecca Ward earlier won the bronze medal match.
Rebecca Ward won a closely contested bronze medal bout to complete the sweep of the women's sabre medals by the United States. Early in the match, Velikaya had stayed ahead. Ward admitted that she was a bit hung up on her semifinal loss to Mariel Zagunis but pulled through in the end with a 15-14 victory over Velikaya.
This evening in Beijing is like a national holiday, or like being on the campus of a Final Four team in March.The city streets are crowded with throngs of people waving flags, wearing armbands or stickers calling out to each other and searching the night sky for the next burst of fireworks.
The Olympic Games pose such a formidable psychological challenge that the mental game is often the pivotal point between success and failure, determining who takes home the medals. For the top fencers, the Olympics are the most demanding of competitions, while for the underdog they present a unique opportunity. Sometimes the best fencer wins, sometimes not. The burden of high expectation and long suffered anticipation can take even the best out of their game.
Day One of Fencing.Net in Beijing. I arrived last night and have gotten situated at the Media Village (it's an apartment building) and tested out a Skype call to the family about an hour ago.
Now it's time to scope out Beijing and take a look at the brackets for the individual events.
