Congratulations are in order for the US Women's Saber Team and their coaches and support staff. What a spectacular result. I once thought I would never see an Olympic Fencing medal for the US in my lifetime. Now, it's starting to become an expected result!
Along with the current Olympians, I think another group of people are deserved some thanks: we need to acknowledge all those women who first stepped up to the plate -- not that long ago -- and said :"Yes, we can fence saber, we want to fence saber, and you have to teach us."
At the start, these women put up with many disdainful coaches, drove or flew to many tiny tournaments, coped with bad referees, and -- at least at the beginning -- struggled under not a small amount of institutional resistance from the USFA. But numerous women and their individual coaches kept training and fencing, raising the level of the weapon every year. In a short time, this small group of fencers and coaches have helped push the elite saber fencers in the US to a pinnacle of success: dominance of an Olympic event.
I don't think we can applaud the results of US Team without also acknowledging all those women (and their coaches) who fought to have woman's saber taken seriously in the US. Their individual hard work, and refusal to take "no" for an answer have been rewarded.
08-10-2008 11:39 PM