Happy February, Members!

Welcome to February — or, as we know it better, the Month of Junior Olympics. We’re thrilled to be welcoming JO’s to the home state of USA Fencing, Colorado, in just a couple of week’s time — more on that later.

I have to open with the excitement of the IWAS World Cup Washington, the first international Parafencing event we’ve hosted in 20 years. And what an event it was! We had seven new athletes competing at their first international event for Team USA, and each represented us well and gives us hope for an exciting future for the program. We appreciated everyone mucking in, and I have to call out my staff team here who spent four days cranking down frames as “pit crew,” while many folks from board members to parents and everyone in between made it happen both behind and in front of the scenes. 

Financially, it wouldn’t have been possible without the contributions of key donors like Robert Zagunis OLY, the Hon. Sunil & Gabriella Sabharwal, Dr. Laura Johnson, and Michael Vitoux. We appreciate you all so very much. Speaking of which, Sunil and the Hungarian Ambassador to the United States hosted a great reception during the event, and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, the Hon. Denis McDonough, visited with our veteran athletes and officials.

It was a great weekend — and one which should signal both USA Fencing’s commitment to Para athletics and the development of the program as we look ahead to the Los Angeles 2028 Paralympic Games and our intent to host more IWAS events in the future.

That same weekend on the other side of Washington, was the 2023 Capitol Clash SYC/RCC event at the National Harbor, which I had the privilege to visit. It was an almost NAC-sized event that was exceptionally well run by Phil, Gary, Brandon and the rest of the team. Seeing some of our cousins at HEMA competing, too, made it quite the weekend in the D.C. metro for our sport.

While all that excitement was happening in Washington, Alex Massialas OLY and Lee Kiefer OLY were making waves across the pond. Our foil teams were in action in Paris, with Alex taking home individual gold and Lee securing silver. A day later, our men’s and women’s foil teams each earned silver medals, falling only to Italy in both cases. And in Tunisia, Eli Dershwitz OLY returned to the medal stand with a bronze. This is all great news for both saber and foil as we get toward the meat of the season and begin to look ahead to the Olympic qualification series and the World Championship. 

With all these Olympians on the medal stand and our Paralympians performing on home soil, it feels like a good time to mention our New York Gala — the “Fencing Foundation Fete” — which will take place at the Yale Club on the evening of May 4. It’s designed to celebrate New York’s rich history in our sport and is sure to be a special evening. I bought the first table, and I want to thank Mike Joo and Jake Hoyle OLY who were close behind in just the first couple of days. We expect a full room and a great auction that night! Drop me a line if you want to join us! I hope to see you there.

The Foundation has been busy planning even more great events. Soon we’ll announce our Wine & Worlds event, which gives members and donors the opportunity to visit the FIE World Championships in Milan and then explore the wine regions of Northern Italy. That will be followed nearly a year later by our Triomphe ’24 experience, which will be our VIP experience at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Members and donors will have the opportunity to experience the Olympics up close as part of the USA Fencing operation in Paris. 

The Foundation was also responsible for hosting the Veteran’s Dinner in Louisville at the legendary fencing venue known as the Galt House, which historically has hosted national tournaments for our sport. The Veterans Dinner celebrates icons of our sport at the Veterans level. It turns out we do, in fact, talk about Bruno (if that made no sense, ask a friend who has recently watched Encanto), since Bruno Goossens joined Judith Offerle and Delia Turner as lifetime achievement award winners, while Julie Seal and Linda Dunn shared honors for Women of the Year and Mark Lundborg took home Man of the Year. FIE and U.S. Fencing Association Vet leads Rita Comes and Valerie Asher recognized many of those who had made contributions to our Vet community, including Michael Bacon, who founded the Tri State Veterans Cup which has provided Veterans affordable and local competitions around the New York metro. 

With all that Foundation news, I must then give an absolutely shameless plug: head over to www.usafencing.org/donate — or just hit reply — if you want to be part of the Foundation’s increasing presence and support our Veterans and others in this great sport!

The January NAC included Veterans events, as usual, and it was my first with a major Veterans presence since I’ve joined USA Fencing. It was just fantastic to see the atmosphere and warm, friendly — but competitive — environment created by our veterans. It was, quite frankly, inspiring. That aside, seeing Kat Holmes OLY’s emotional victory together with key victories across our Division I events made for yet another successful NAC — and our most successful in January ever. We’ll soon be releasing the schedule for 2023-2024’s season, and though we won’t be back in one of our key cities (Louisville) next season, we think you’ll enjoy the destination for the January NAC.

Speaking of that, we’ve written about how those events are allocated a number of times, and I do believe some of the concerns raised by membership will be somewhat addressed by our 2023-2024 schedule, although we are already working with cities into the 2024-2025 season. Just this last week we’ve been discussing the January and April 2025 events. As our sport becomes more successful, and the costs rise, it is becoming more and more challenging to satisfy all that we need from a NAC and all that our members need to see. That means, ideally, a good airlift, healthy hotel rates, and a financially affordable venue that is big enough to host our events. It also means avoiding whenever possible states who have laws that put our women’s members’ health at risk or discriminate against our LGBTQ+ communities.

Hearing from members is key to how we move forward. More and more of you are happily taking the opportunity to “hit reply” and start those conversations that are only serving to improve us. But a more formal way to reach out is our inaugural member survey. This survey will help us create a Customer Service Satisfaction Score and will be combined with new customer service management software we are currently trialing here at USA Fencing to measure our service to you, the member. 

Members also will have the chance to have their say in our direction and leadership in a few months when the At-Large Director elections take place. Right now, we are in the petition phase, which means that folks who were not nominated by the Nominating Committee are able to petition onto the ballot. This period lasts through March, and so far two people have been added to the ballot (subject to verification). This process is, in turn, overseen by the Election Committee.

A lot of chatter has been around the Y8-Y10-Y12 review group, and I first want to take a moment to thank the members of that group who have come together and worked on an aggressive time schedule to help our sport engage our youngest athletes. This month, the group will provide their report to the USA Fencing Board of Directors at its upcoming Feb. 16 board meeting. The group will not be recommending the removal of national competition for Y10 and Y12 while they recommend the formalization of Y8 at the regional level. Instead, the group will make recommendations in line with limiting burnout and encouraging fun within these age groups, likely to include the engagement in other activities or sports at these ages — an idea that was universally endorsed by the group.

Also in front of our board is a significant update to the USA Fencing bylaws addressing a number of issues. These will then enter a comment period where the membership can have their say. A number of these updates simply correct typos or grammar, but there are some more fundamental updates which give a clear pathway to how a Chair is removed, clarify the role of the “Vice Chair” or “Vice President” as it has been known, to clarify term limits for the Chair, Treasurer and currently named Vice Chair roles, a change to create a Grievance and Discipline Committee. The latter is aligned with new disciplinary procedures which simplify our disciplinary procedures (outside, of course, of those in the exclusive jurisdiction of either the U.S. Center for SafeSport or the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency) and give the G&D Committee authority to act, with the board now our appellate body and not our direct discipline committee. I want to thank Donald Alperstein who has been an exceptional volunteer resource in this process, together with Stephen Hess and Christina Pachuta. 

Our members have been heavily put to work elsewhere, with our Membership Review Group, Multi-Sport Membership Review Group and Events Review Group well underway, our CEO Advisory Group and finally the High School and Fighting for Fencing Collegiate Group all seated or on their way to being seated.

Finally, as we enter February, back to that Junior Olympics, and our first team competitions of the season. The Junior Olympics is a special competition where we really highlight the future of USA Fencing, and we’ll see some collegiate opportunities at the Junior Olympics too. February also marks Black History Month, which means we pay special attention to the rich history of USA Fencing’s African American population — keep an eye on our social media as we mark the occasion all month long. 

That’s quite enough from me, but if we can help you in any way, just hit reply.

Phil Andrews

CEO, USA Fencing

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