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.
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.
Sada Jacobson and Rebecca Ward are seeded #1 and #2 entering the Women's Sabre competition on Saturday, August 9th. Fellow US teammate Mariel Zagunis is seeded 6th. Jacobson's draw could lead to a rematch of her 2004 semi final bout with hometown favorite Xue Tan.
Last March US Epee fencer Seth Kelsey found out that he was pictured on a stamp issued by the African republic of Benin.
The stamp which commemorates the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games honors different sports one of the stamp is for fencing and shows Kelsey from the 2004 Olympics.
“I totally was surprised,” Kelsey said. “I didn’t know anything about it, but I thought it was pretty cool.”
The world's #1 ranked men's foil fencer Andrea Baldini failed a drug test and will not compete in the Beijing Olympics. The 22 year old Baldini has been removed from the Italian contingent to the Olympic Games following a positive drug test result from the European Championships in Kiev last month.
The US Olympic Team heads out to San Jose for final processing, a media day, and then the trip to Beijing for the Games. The men's sabre squad has been home based in New York and attending a training camp focused on both individual and team bout situations.
We caught up with Tim Morehouse to speak about the final Olympic preparations, some of his potential match ups as well as some more information about his training methods.
Last March US Epee fencer Seth Kelsey found out that he was pictured on a stamp issued by the African republic of Benin. 
The world's #1 ranked men's foil fencer Andrea Baldini failed a drug test and will not compete in the Beijing Olympics. The 22 year old Baldini has been removed from the Italian contingent to the Olympic Games following a positive drug test result from the European Championships in Kiev last month.
