US Fencing Results from Worlds

[Craig]

The results are in, the competition is finished and we're off to the races for 2004 Olympic qualification.

This is for the US fencers on the board. Based on the strength of the team that was sent to Cuba and the expectations for them overall, did the team to better, worse, or just as you expected?

I've got my own views, but I'll save them for a WC recap article I'm working on.

Cheers,
Craig

[DHCJr]

No Medals, Only 3 Individuals in the Top 8, 2 others in the Top 16, only 1 team in the Top 8.

When was the last time we did that bad?

[Agent_V]

Originally posted by DHCJr
No Medals, Only 3 Individuals in the Top 8, 2 others in the Top 16, only 1 team in the Top 8.

When was the last time we did that bad?

Or to phrase it another way, when did the US do so well? Sure, it may seem bad because all of our star sabrists faltered (with maybe the exception of Ivan Lee), but comon, when in history has the US ever made it to the eight in mens epee?
BIG props go to Soren for an awesome job done...

[whtouche]

Clearly sorens performance is extraordinary, but the question was about the overall performance of the US at the worlds. Not "how did epee do".
Overall, we did much worse than anyone was expecting.

[Inquartata]

If memory serves, we never seem to do too well in Cuba.

Perhaps it's another conspiracy?

[whtouche]

Im not sure about the other two weapons, but wasn't it the cuba world cup that saw 3? american sabre-erists in the top 8, and...a multiplicity of them in the top 16?

Id call that doing well :-P

[Inquartata]

I thought it was the previous one, in...I forget where. Madrid?

[downunder]

australia did well!

we had 2 people in the top 16, quite an achievement for us

[Avril Roddam]

Originally posted by downunder
australia did well!

we had 2 people in the top 16, quite an achievement for us

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oy, oy, oy!

[vegan]

Hi guys,
So . . . Even the high level world cups are not a world champs, and so . . . I think we did worse then I expected, however- some weapons and people did much much better . . . I.e. Erin Smart (wow- you go!) and Jed Dupree in foil and Ivan Lee in Sabre as well as Soren. When have we had as rounded results?
Cheers,
B.
ps. the teams did not do very well however!

[The0ne]

Jedediah Dupree didn't do all that well. . . I think he could have done quite a bit better than he did. Same goes for the entire US foil team. . . I don't remember exactly but i don't think we had anybody in the 32. . . =(
Soren did really well, same for Erinn. . . Wasn't even close to Keeth Smart's best performance which was too bad.

[nahouw]

Originally posted by Craig
This is for the US fencers on the board. Based on the strength of the team that was sent to Cuba and the expectations for them overall, did the team to better, worse, or just as you expected?

I think that this needs to be broken down into a 2-part question:

Based on the USFA's expectations, the team did worse than expected. I think that the USFA tries too much to hype up expectations to attract media attention, and when the fencers fall short, the media attention isn't there -- this is bad on 2 counts: the media learns that the hype is just hype and doesn't pay attention over time, and the fencers feel bad for not reaching USFA's expectations. The USFA needs to learn that it is always better to under-promise and over-deliver, than to over-promise and under-deliver.

However, on the other hand, the individual fencers themselves have done some very good things (absent of USFA's sometimes unrealistic expectations). The field at this World Championship was very difficult indeed -- kudos go out to especially Soren Thompson -- Men's Epee is especially deep, and especially difficult, and he did extremely well. Ivan Lee and Erinn Smart making top 16 is also quite notable. I would also give kudos to the men's foil team -- they all performed extremely well, considering the tough bouts they had encountered -- their final placements cannot be discounted, because for many of them, it was 1 touch to the next round against very difficult opponents. Women's epee is also a tough field, and kudos go to Steffi for making the 64. In addition, the Women's epee team did very well by keeping ahead of the rest in the hemisphere.