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Happy Holidays, Fencing Members!
I’ll start with a little bit of personal news. By the time you read this, I’ll be nearing the start of paternity leave. Luckily, USA Fencing offers a great parental leave policy, which means I’ll be away until the NCAA Convention in mid-January supporting my wife and our new daughter. I’m writing this just before the start of the month of December, and so I also want to wish the best of luck to our Cadets, Juniors and Division I fencers at the SJCC and Division I NAC in Richmond, Va., this weekend.
This tournament was always planned to be an SJCC, but we added the Division I competition (originally scheduled for November in Fort Worth) because of some conflicts with the FIE’s World Cup schedule.
Speaking of those World Cup events, we saw some superb opening results for Team USA — highlighted by individual gold medals for Margherita Guzzi Vincenti in women’s epee and Alexander Massialas OLY in men’s foil, as well as a team gold for our men’s saber squad. On that, a special shoutout to the comeback of Daryl Homer OLY, who has spent some time on the sidelines with injury and was back with force in Algeria.
This year’s senior FIE circuit will culminate in the naming of the U.S. Olympic Team for Paris 2024, which will be celebrated at the U.S. Fencing Foundation Fête on May 9 in New York City. We just put out the save the date and will have tickets on sale shortly. If you want to sponsor a table, then get in touch by hitting reply. I must extend a big thank you to Bank of America, who will be the title sponsors of this year’s Gala! Thanks also to Joe Inzerillo and Victoria Voytek who are co-chairing the organizing committee for this May.
The FIE also honored some of the amazing feats of U.S. athletes at the recent FIE Congress in Egypt, where our large delegation was headed by the Chair of the USA Fencing Board of Directors, Ivan Lee OLY. Our duo of World No. 1 athletes in foil — Alexander Massialas OLY and Lee Kiefer OLY — were honored for their top rankings in 2022-23. The Congress also recognized Junior Men’s Saber No. 1 Colin Heathcock, who was present in person, and Junior Women’s Epee No. 1 Hadley Husisian, while the USA took home the Junior Women’s Foil and Junior Men’s Foil team honors and the Grand Prix of Nations prize for both Juniors and Veterans. That last honors Team USA’s success across all weapons and genders. It’s truly amazing to see such a broad level of success for the sport. Congratulations also to our friends in Hungary, Italy, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Poland, Georgia, France, Japan, Korea and Turkey for their awards.
It’s been quite the start to the season with NCAA action underway, as well as exceptionally strong participation in fencing across the nation at regional events, as well as two huge NAC events. And we can’t forget the FIE Veteran Worlds here in the USA, as well as the IWAS Parafencing Worlds abroad! Thanks to everyone who is working hard across the nation to grow this sport. As the Olympics and Paralympics come into view in 2024, it’s an opportunity to bring a friend or family member to try fencing! Get them to your club and your coach!
Speaking of fencers, we are delighted to share that we will have a former fencer joining us at USA Fencing headquarters: Jennifer Vernon, who fenced epee for Fairleigh Dickinson University, joins our membership team next week. We’re also delighted to welcome A’Niya Sconiers in early 2024 to our Membership and Finance Operations teams. She joins after time at the Tampa Bay Rays, among others. We look forward to them contributing to our continued culture of service, listening and growth here at USA Fencing.
Our group of sponsors has grown once again, and we’re thrilled that InGenius Prep has joined our supporting group. Once again, this happened because a member came forward and connected us, and thank you to that member. It’s really amazing to see the network of the fencing community at work. That said, we really need our fencing community to support that family of sponsors so we can continue to retain and grow these fine sponsors.
Have a great holiday season, and see you in January!
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