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Happy Summer Nationals Month, Members!
Summer Nationals is here, and it's among the largest Summer Nationals in history. We hope with the travel chaos that has been stretching across the country these last few days that everyone is is making the best of their travel to Phoenix. If you've not yet arrived, please remember to stay hydrated in Phoenix — it will be hot and dry, and you may sweat more than usual so additional hydration is key. Ironically, I might also advise bringing an additional layer for inside the venue, restaurants and hotels since establishments across Arizona use very powerful air conditioning. All aside though, these nine days will feature the largest fencing tournament on the planet — a true festival of our sport from age 7 to 85.
Before I go any further, I do want to take a moment to thank the many people behind our Summer Nationals, as well as all of our NACs and national events. You won't see all of them because much of their work is done behind the scenes. First and foremost, the fencers, and the coaches and (where applicable) parents or loved ones who support them — but of course the referees, armory, registration, bout committee, IT, awards, replay, scheduling, sports med and our national staff team. Thanks for all your efforts.
I know there have been questions about a handful of fencers who have competed for either Russia or Belarus and are registered to compete in Phoenix. At the time of writing, the number that I am aware of is three. Those individuals have all signed declarations against the war, as is required by our policy set in April 2023 (from October to April, we had a complete ban). My understanding is all of these individuals are now residing permanently in the United States.
Anyway, aside from seeing a festival of fencing, there are many off-the-strip offerings in Phoenix this year — highlighted by a Collegiate Fair this weekend (thanks to Michael Aiken for his efforts organizing), furthering our partnership with programs offering NCAA Fencing, and this year including the new program at Wheaton College, where David Sach has recently been announced as the head coach. By the way, ongoing conversations particularly in Virginia, New York and North Carolina leave us hopeful that we'll have more programs to announce in the coming months. (Fun fact, David actually coached at my high school in England!)
While at Summer Nationals, you'll also see visual representation of many of our new sponsors. That includes Naked Wines, as well as our long-standing partner Absolute Fencing. We're also excited to welcome new partners Gallagher Insurance and Edge Spray. By the way, the Edge Spray agreement happened because a USA Fencing member made the connection. Thank you! Sponsorship happens through relationships, so if you are in a position where you could connect us to the right person, hit reply!
It's vital for us to support these sponsors for them to continue to sponsor USA Fencing, so I invite and ask you to try Naked Wines (I recommend Aperture by Jesse Katz or the Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot by Carmen Stevens) if you are reading and are, of course, over 21! Speaking of Naked Wines, they are kindly supporting our Wine Pull at the USA Fencing Hall Fame dinner on July 5.
That Hall of Fame will see Sam Cheris, Ed Donofrio OLY, Kamara James OLY, Sean McClain, John Moreau OLY, Chris O'Loughlin OLY, Charlotte Remenyik and Hanna Thompson inducted into the Hall. We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday evening at the Renaissance and celebrating these cornerstone individuals in our community. A big thanks to the Hall of Fame Committee for their assistance in putting that event together.
There's also the annual All-Membership meeting on July 4. What better way to spend Independence Day evening than with a British-American CEO and colleagues from the Board of Directors? While this and today's Town Hall provide structured opportunities for discussion and interaction, feel free to pull me aside in the venue any time you like, or as always, hit reply here too.
Speaking of membership — remember that membership renewals open today (July 1), and from July 1 to 31 can be purchased at last year's rates. Club membership renewal is open as well, and our social and outreach club program has already seen 21 applications that have been successful in being classified as a social and outreach club, covering high schools, outreach programs, DEIB-focused programs and University clubs. Thank you to all of you who helped make 2022-2023 a record membership season for paid memberships (meaning not including trial memberships).
On July 6, we'll have an opportunity to celebrate folks who have been hard at work across the country either graduating from USA Fencing's Leadership Academy (by the way, here's a plug to apply for the 2023-2024 edition) and winners of USA Fencing's new DEIB awards.
One thing you won't see at Summer Nationals is Parafencing — and that's for good reason. Our parafencers will be headed to Poland to compete in the World Cup series in Warsaw. Paralympic qualification has been underway for some time, so keep your eyes peeled on USA Fencing's social media for the latest updates on standings, which are also posted for able-bodied qualification after each qualifying competition.
Our parafencing coach Julio Diaz was at the Endeavor Games recruiting athletes this month, and we will be heading to the Angel City Games in Los Angeles soon to promote parafencing there as well. Good luck to the whole team in Poland! Sadly, we won't be hosting an IWAS World Cup next year, but we are excited to continue to progress our para program, which gives me an opportunity to plug considering becoming a para referee. Inquire with a member of the RC during Summer Nationals for a little more detail on the process.
Meanwhile, in Lima our Senior squad went through a critical Olympic Games qualification event at the Pan-American Championships; winning nine gold medals and topping the overall medal table with 16 medals, including golds for Kasia Nixon (Women's Epee / Peter Westbrook Foundation), Gerek Meinhardt OLY (Men's Foil / Massialas Foundation), Magda Skarbonkiewicz (Women's Saber / Oregon Fencing Alliance), Lee Kiefer OLY (Women's Foil / Bluegrass Fencers Club) and Andrew Doddo (Men's Saber / New Jersey Fencing Alliance), Women's Team Epee, Men's Team Foil, Women's Team Saber and Men's Team Saber. A particular shoutout to Men's Foil who earned three of four available individual medals!
This leaves our teams in good shape headed both into Milan for Worlds, as well as qualification for the 2024 Olympic Games — with five of six disciplines now in place to have full delegations in Paris.
I'm sure everyone is already aware that the U.S. Center for SafeSport closed the Alen Hazdic case, resulting in a permanent ineligibility from the Olympic & Paralympic movement's sports for Hazdic. While this case is closed after a period that was too long (and is still subject to arbitration proceedings), our need to improve our culture in sport continues. It is more than unfortunate this individual was allowed to continue to practice in this community while the investigation was ongoing — and while USA Fencing was not the organization allowing him to continue to fence, I apologize to the victims, as well as those on our men's and women's Epee teams for what they've had to put up with over the last couple of years.
This season has seen four times the number of SafeSport and conduct reports as awareness about this process increases. Our new Grievance and Disciplinary Process is beginning to work well since most of those cases have been resolved within 90 days where USA Fencing is able to have jurisdiction — this amount of reports shows, we hope, an increased trust in the process as well as a willingness to report misconduct in fencing. To that end, we encourage you to continue to report, either through our texting system (320-ENGARDGE) or our online form (here).
We recently added Amanda Nguyen to the Board of Directors this month. Amanda is a Time Woman of the Year and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, as well as Founder and CEO of RISE, Amanda's expertise in fighting abuse (as well as her experience in government relations and nonprofit management) on a national and international scale are going to be critical in continuing this attention to ensuring Fencing is a safe place for all to practice sport.
Speaking of the Board, we've also seen Ivan Lee OLY and Damien Lehfeldt elected to our Board of Directors. Their terms will start on Sept. 1; while Abdel Salem OLY-Egy was re-elected to the Board of Directors. I'm personally looking forward to beginning work with Ivan and Damien, as well of course with Amanda and continuing to work with our existing board members. A thanks to membership who came out to vote, in record numbers as well as the candidates who stood and were not successful and both the Nominations Committe (led by Kat Holmes OLY) and Election Committee (led by Susan Belanich).
Taking a moment, then, to pay tribute to Lorrie Marcil-Holmes and Donald Alperstein. Both Lorrie and Donald have spent a significant amount of time on the Board of Directors, and indeed Donald's signature is on the founding documents of USA Fencing here in Colorado (together with Sam Cheris). One only has to wade back through our Board minutes to see the impact of both individuals on our sport. Donald's other contributions to the Olympic and Paralympic movement stretch over several sports, he leaves a lasting legacy; and one that is not yet finished.
We also saw changes in our Foundation Trustees, after eight years as president, Robert Zagunis OLY stepped down to focus on his new investment business, while Bill Walker also stepped away after three years to concentrate on his remaining time as a Vet fencer. We welcome Don Anthony Jr. as Interim President, stepping up form the Vice President role. This year has been a record year for the Foundation, in part because of the Fencing Foundation Fete in New York City, and in part because of an interest in our major gift program. You'll see some of that impact next season since a major donor from the D.C. metro area is the reason junior camps will have a full schedule for the first time in almost a decade.
Vet Worlds is coming our way soon. The FIE was in Daytona Beach for a site visit this last month, which went very well indeed. The registration is now open for nations seeking to register their teams for October; and folks are applying for their visas to the USA. Our thanks to Jennifer Yamin, Rita Comes and others strongly involved in the organization. We'll see that U.S. team named to defend our overall medal count win from Croatia last year this week in Phoenix.
That's definitely more than five minutes, so let's get back to fencing!
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