International Activity
The USFA has achieved considerable prestige on and off the strip. Despite financial and geographical handicaps to participation in most major international competitions, US athletes have competed with distinction internationally since 1904. In the 2006 World Junior and Cadet Championships, the US athletes broke US records by winning 9 individual medals of which three were gold medals and one team GOLD, junior women’s sabre team won its third consecutive team GOLD. Besides the 9 individual medals, five other athletes made the final 8. The United States placed third in the FIE World standings for the Championships, the highest placing ever.
Periodically the USFA has undertaken to host World Championships – cadet, junior and senior. In addition, its long standing Martini international tournament was added to the calendar of the FIE as a World Cup tournament.
USFA HOST OF WORLD CUPS, WORLD/ZONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS AND OLYMPIC GAMES
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World Senior Champs. |
1958 |
Philadelphia, PA |
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1989 |
Denver, CO |
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World Sr. Team Champs. – Women’s Foil and Sabre |
2004 |
New York, NY |
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World Junior Champs. |
1971, 1979, 1988, 2000 |
South Bend, IN |
|
1993 |
Denver, CO |
|
|
World Junior Cadet Champs. |
2000 |
|
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World Cup Sr Men’s Sabre |
Intl 1961 |
New York NY |
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World Cup Sr MS, WF |
2009 |
Dallas, TX |
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2010 |
New York, NY |
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World Cup Sr & Team MS, WS |
2011 |
New York NY |
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World Cup Sr MS, WF, WS |
Held in NYC, VA, Peabody, MA |
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World Cup Sr WF, WS |
2005, 2006 |
Las Vegas, NV |
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World Veterans Champs First held in 1997 in ME only |
2002, 2005 |
Tampa, FL |
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Pan American Championships |
2011 |
Reno, NV |
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Olympic Games |
1932, 1984 |
Los Angeles, CA |
|
1996 |
Atlanta, GA |
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The highest honor and vote of confidence in US fencing was bestowed by the FIE in 1960, when it elected Miguel de Capriles as President of the FIE for a four-year term and entrusted the running of international fencing affairs to an all US Bureau that included Jose de Capriles as Deputy President; Gen. J.V. Grombach as Secretary-General; and Leo G. Nunes as Treasure.
The honor of taking the Olympic oath at the opening ceremony on behalf of all the assembled athletes was given to Lt. George C. Calnan, men’s foil fencer, in the 1932 Olympiad and to George V. Worth, sabre fencer, in the 1959 Pan American Games. The honor of carrying the flag for the US delegation as it entered the stadium for the opening ceremonies was awarded to Dr. Norman C. Armitage (member of 6 Olympic Teams in sabre – 1928, 1932, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956) in the 1952 and 1956 Olympic Games, and to Miguel de Capriles (epee) in the 1951 Pan American Games. In the 1968 Olympic Games, Mrs. Janice Lee York Romary (ten time National Champion in foil) became the first woman to carry the flag of the US delegation in the opening ceremonies in honor of her sixth competitive appearance in the Olympic Games (1948 – 1968).
The honor of carrying the flag for the US delegation in the closing ceremonies was awarded to Peter Westbrook (12-time National Sabre Champion) at the 1992 Olympic Games.
RECENT NOTABLE US PERFORMANCES – WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS & OLYMPIC GAMES (Incomplete – to be completed)
2000 WORLD TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS
GOLD: Women’s Sabre Team: (Chris Becker, Nicole Mustilli, Sada Jacobson, Mariel Zagunis)
2001 WORLD TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS
BRONZE Women’s Foil Team (Ann Marsh, Erinn Smart, Felicia Zimmermann, Iris Zimmermann)
2004 WORLD TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS
SILVER Women’s Sabre Team (Emily Jacobson, Sada Jacobson, Caitlin Thompson. Mariel Zagunis)
2005 WORLD TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS
GOLD: Women’s Sabre Team (, Sada Jacobson, Caitlin Thompson, Rebecca Ward, Mariel Zagunis )
2004 OLYMPIC GAMES:
GOLD: Mariel Zagunis, Women’s Sabre, individual
BRONZE: Sada Jacobson, Women’s Sabre, individual
Fourth: Men’s Foil Team (Jed Dupree, Dan Kellner, Jon Tiomkin, Greg Chang (Alt))
Men’s Sabre Team (Ivan Lee, Jason Rogers, Keeth Smart, Tim Morehouse (Alt))
2006 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
GOLD: Rebecca Ward, Women’s Sabre Individual (first woman to win all three World Championships titles in the same year: Cadet, Junior and Senior)
SILVER: Mariel Zagunis, Women’s Sabre Individual (winner of the FIE World Cup two years in a row)
BRONZE: Sada Jacobson, Women’s Sabre Individual
SILVER: Women’s Sabre Team: Sada Jacobson, Caitlin Thompson, Rebecca Ward, Mariel Zagunis
GOLD Curtis Lovejoy, Wheelchair Men’s Foil Category C
2008 OLYMPIC GAMES
GOLD: : Mariel Zagunis, Women’s Sabre Individual
SILVER: Sada Jacobson, Women’s Sabre Individual
BRONZE: Rebecca Ward, Women’s Sabre Individua
SILVER: Women’s Foil Team: Emily Cross, Erinn Smart, Hannah Thompson, Doris Willette
BRONZE: Women’s Sabre Team: Sada Jacobson, Rebecca Ward, Mariel Zagunis (Dagmara Wozniak, Sub)
SILVER: Men’s Sabre Team: Tim Morehouse, Jason Rogers, Keeth Smart, James Williams
2009 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
GOLD Mariel Zagunis, Women’s Sabre Individual
