ideas for a reporter?

[cynthia g]

Dear fencing people: I am a California-based national magazine writer, totally ignorant about your sport, but like many others intrigued by the surprise US gold medal last week. I write for various outlets, including The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker, where I recently had a terrific time reporting a profile of the swimmer Natalie Coughlin--more a piece about the nature of swimming, really, than about Natalie herself. (Ran the issue of July 5.) I'm now interested in poking around to learn more about fencing in the U.S. and to see whether/how I might craft a story--maybe a piece about Mariel Zagunis and what it's like to come home with this sudden stardom, but maybe not. Where should I start? What should I read? Are there any big debates, crises, trends, amazing characters, changes of technique, etc., that I should learn about? Will this gold medal mean anything momentous for the fencing scene in this country?

Just some starter tips that might get me going would be most appreciated. If anybody has a really great idea and wants to leave a phone number, feel free. Many thanks.

Cynthia Gorney

[Peach]

First suggestion: Depending on where you're located, you should take an hour to drop in on a fencing club and watch. That will give you an idea of what the sport is like. Many fencing clubs are small and beat-up--they're storefronts, warehouses, single floors in a tall building, or even gypsy enterprises that meet in high school gymnasiums and youth centers. Fencing is far from an "elite" sport in the United States--it has a rich history, granted, and the Ivies have fencing, but it tends to draw overeducated individualists from many different walks of life and in many different parts of the country. Check out the USFA site at www.usfencing.org and look for some clubs near you.

[Peach]

Second suggestion: post this request for information in the "Fencing Discussion" section, as apparently few people besides me have seen it.

Silly me, I just click on "new posts" whenever I check the board.

[FoilyGeezer]

Also feel free to frequent this board and approach some of the members here...PM Craig and I'm sure he'll point you at people who can best address your approach to a topic. The good news is that there are plenty of members on in the discussion boards who have been active at high organizational and competitive levels for years. There are also a lot of beginners or potential beginners.

Mariel's story, while great in itself is hardly the culmination of the potential of Fencing in the US, but indicative of the ongoing progress that we continue to make on a world stage that has long been the showcase of European dominance.

[sabreur]

Also, the gold medal wasn't a surprise for those of us who fence--although we expected Sada Jacobson, who has been ranked #1 in the world in women's sabre for quite a while, to win it, rather than Mariel--who is ranked a paltry #4....

MR

[noodle]

Originally Posted by cynthia g

Dear fencing people: I am a California-based national magazine writer, totally ignorant about your sport, but like many others intrigued by the surprise US gold medal last week. I write for various outlets, including The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker, where I recently had a terrific time reporting a profile of the swimmer Natalie Coughlin--more a piece about the nature of swimming, really, than about Natalie herself. (Ran the issue of July 5.) I'm now interested in poking around to learn more about fencing in the U.S. and to see whether/how I might craft a story--maybe a piece about Mariel Zagunis and what it's like to come home with this sudden stardom, but maybe not. Where should I start? What should I read? Are there any big debates, crises, trends, amazing characters, changes of technique, etc., that I should learn about? Will this gold medal mean anything momentous for the fencing scene in this country?

Just some starter tips that might get me going would be most appreciated. If anybody has a really great idea and wants to leave a phone number, feel free. Many thanks.

Cynthia Gorney

Where should you start, what should you read?
start with the rules of fencing or at least an overview of them. you can find stuff here

Are there any...Big debates?
naturally. any sport has them. ours are generally only in foil, though, for some reason. the "flick" attack and how the rules define an attack are two hot topics that are reasonably closely related.

...crises?
that depends on what you consider a crisis. we're very short on quality referees. this comes from a lot of different reasons. i suppose you could consider the problem that our country has in lack of interest in fencing a crisis. all of the non-american fencers of any quality are all professional. they fence for a living, like we work a job. they can do this because the sport is popular abroad. we don't have this luxury.

...Amazing characters?
keeth smart, the jacobsons, peter westbrook, mariel zagunis, our men's foil team, rebecca ward; the standard newsworthy characters. i can't think of many others off the top of my head.

...Change of technique?
probably see the big debates section.

if you want more stuff on mariel, you may do best to actually contact her or her family in some form. or possibly the usfa itself. i can't say i know much about her off the top of my head.

what will this gold medal mean?
it means we're going to be more recognized internally as a sport and externally as a fencing country. the team placements and soren thompson didn't hurt, either. this probably our best olympics ever, or at least, in the last century. but beyond that, i feel that it won't mean much else beyond a slight increase in interest/enrollment/participation which will probably subside after a bit.

anyway, i hope some of this helped and i also hope its correct if you want any more in-depth information, feel free to email/private message me or something.

[CsmaCD]

Years ago, a Birmingham, Alabama TV station aired a month-long sports report titled "Paper Stallion". The local USFL (now-defunct United States Football League) team was the Stallions, and they allowed the sports anchor to participate as a player. He went to practice, was evaluated like the players, expected to learn the playbook, et cetera.

In the end, it was an insightful view into the world of professional athletics, and football in particular.

Along a similar vein, I remember an article in American Fencer, I think it was called "Sportscaster Challenge". As I remember, a club did a publicity drive which involved a couple of local sportscasters, giving them some training, suiting them up, and having them in a local tournament. Personally, I've always thought this was a brilliant idea! (Might even have a few good laughs if you could get competing stations involved!)

I'm not sure how something like this could fit into your desires, but maybe these thoughts will spark something...

[esskreemr]

Perhaps some interesting knowledge for a non-fencer:

The second fastest moving object in sports is the tip of a foil (second after the marksman's bullet.

Fencing in the U.S. goes back to the 1800's.

Fencing at the local levels is integrated. Most females are welcome to compete in male events unless it is a national qualifying path.

There are 3 weapons that differ significantly in form and function.

[Artisan]

I think it would be interesting to look a little at fencing's modern history in the US, and the impact of the diaspora of Hungarian coaches in the 50's and then the Russians in the late 80's and 90's. I don't believe the sport would be quite where it is here today without them.

Also, look into why those who start fencing and stick with it become (it seems) so rabidly addicted to it, more so I believe than almost any other sport, pehaps with the exception of the "extreme" sports like Sky Diving, Glacier skiing, stunt type sports, where there has to be a biochemical adrenaline addiction factor.

And for once, make a mention of Peter Westbrook, his career and the work he continues to do - but don't make it the focus of the story. Its great material but almost every "about Fencing story" has already gone there and you'd be trodding well worn ground.

Ask the question:
Lance Armstrong brought Cycling to the American public. Tiger Woods brought golf to the non-white / non-upper class public, as did the Williams sisters for tennis. Mark Spitz for Swimming.The US Womens Soccer team put America's little girls onto the soccer pitch. Greg Loughennis for gay athletes.. Olga Korbut brought Gymnastics to the entire world....you get the idea; Where will Mariel Zagunis bring fencing and to whom?

I hope that the leadership at USFA is sitting in closed rooms with the right people and marketing / advertising folks at this moment, planning for the optimal way to leverage the US Olympic fencing results to best advantage. From Nike and Coke to the leading brands of laundry detergent (getting those fencing whites whiter), USFA and its promotional minions should be convincing them that this is a ground floor opportunity for their brands to be associated with one of the hottest things coming out of the Olympics.

[achilleus]

Get to a fencing club. Specifically one of the larger ones. In CA, I can think of two or three that attain some national notice.

Golden Gate Fencing in San Francisco
Los Angeles International that had 3 Olympic team members and a very distinguished coaching staff.
Los Angeles Fencing - Olympic Official Derek Cotton, and pehaps Felicia Zimmerman Olympian.

They can give you great insight into our sport.

[cynthia g]

These are great starters, and many thanks. I'm going to look up the San Francisco fencing club first, and see what I can see. I especially loved the bit about the foil tip being the second fastest moving object in sports.

Will be back in touch with more questions eventually...but feel free to contact me, as a couple of you have, with any sudden thoughts that come up.