|
Page 2 of 4
USA: Strong future in fencing
The USA has had its strongest combined showing at the Olympics since the middle ages, 1956. The Men's Sabre Team and the Men's Foil Team placed fourth. These are great placements, usually reserved for the traditional fencing superpowers. There is very little room at the top, and every high result must displace a long-time occupant. This year, the USA tied Germany for medals, and also knocked them out of Men's Foil Team.
And the personal results are even more encouraging. Gold for Mariel Zagunis in Women's Individual Sabre. Bronze for Sada Jacobson (Jacobson will always be the USA's first woman medalist). And the non-medal results speak volumes. Dan Kellner (MF) upset Cedric Gohy of Belgium. Keeth Smart beat Gael Touya FRA, while Ivan Lee eliminated Gianpiero Pastore ITA. Soren Thompson upset the number one seed, Alfredo Rota ITA, and made the highest Men's Epee result in four decades — and the highest men's individual fencing result in 2004. When US fencers are eliminated, they now take several fencers down with them.
|
Keeth Smart, post-loss, hasn't realized yet that he has helped change the story of a nation. Photo courtesy Serge Timacheff/FencingPhotos.com
| Also encouraging is the number of coaches who developed these fencers. Yury Gelman, Vladimir Nazlymov, Arkady Burdan, Ed Korfanty, Simon Gershon, Mikhail Petin, Aladar Kogler, Buckie Leach, Michael Marx, Paul Soter, Yefim Litvan, Gago Demirchian, Kornel Udvarhelyi, to name a few. The US team wasn't created by a single brilliant maestro, on his way to burn-out. The coaches are numerous and diverse. But — most of these coaches have been working a long time, and they didn't suddenly get good at their craft. Why all the success, now? A better talent pool.
The most striking change in American fencing is the talent pool, which has widened and deepened since the 1980's. These fencers began with strong coaching, in their teens or earlier. Dan Kellner started with Simon Gershon before Simon could speak English. We are only now seeing the first fruits from an orchard 20 years in the making, and the orchard will be productive for decades to come.
US fencing's upward climb won't end after this Olympics. Even given the fierce post-Olympic turnover rate, as fencers drop out to find jobs or continue school, many fencers will return to competition, or at least gut-check the next generation (Ann Marsh likes to do this). Most of our fencers are easily young enough to attend another Olympics, even two or three, but it's up to them to hold down a job and fight off young up-and-comers if they want to do it.
Thanks, USFA!
In the end analysis, the US has apparently found a formula that works. It's not only excellent athleticism, dedication and training on the part of the fencers... the USFA has fashioned an apparatus that can build amateur competitors of the highest caliber. The emphasis on elite athletes is paying off with excitement and elevated public interest. The number of fencing web-hits and "how do I fence?" emails is through the roof. Our team for the 2016 Olympics is right now asking its mother to find a fencing salle on the intarweb.
As Jed Dupree (men's foil) said, "The future belongs to us."
Next: Shifts in world fencing
|
