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Jeff's Book Reviews
...you can open it at virtually any page between 1 and 246 and find interesting, absorbing and frequently moving passages.
Graham Morrison (British Fencing magazine, "The Sword")
One good thing about Jeff Bukantz's book "Closing the Distance" is that you can open it at virtually any page between 1 and 246 and find interesting, absorbing and frequently moving passages. The sub-title, "Chasing a Father's Olympic Fencing Legacy" sums up the main thrust of the book, but the sub-plot of battling through he various obstacles and vicissitudes encountered by anyone trying to climb the greasy pole will appeal to readers with international ambitions and the merely curious alike - especially as the author's efforts proved successful.
Jeff Bukantz's father Danny was a highly successful and internationally respected fencer; following in his footsteps and in one respect at least surpassing him was clearly tough. Through he book, which is refreshingly direct and 'to the point', Bukantz shows the great strength of character and determination needed to succeed not just as an athlete, but as an international referee when the odds seemed against him, and ultimately as national team captain at the Olympic Games. It is also a book of family values, and the closeness of the family shows as important to his success. All the names are there, the ups and downs, the tears of success and failure, the unreported conversations. Although Jeff Bukantz is a USA team member and shows pride in that and his country and background, ultimately, the book has little to do with nationality or background - it is just a great story of one man's success judged, not by others, but by his own impossibly demanding criteria. A really good read - should be on every athlete's and sports administrator's bookshelf.
This book is very helpful especially to athletes who follow for fun or obligation in the footprints left by the parents, and for the parents who often do not understand the hardships the sons have to go through just because of them.
Ella Loescher (Scherma Online)
Shortly before Jeff’s birth his dad, Danny Bukantz, a foil fencer, wins his fourth national championship after having represented his country, the USA, at the Olympics in 1948, 1952, and 1956.
As a teenager Jeff who reached a weight of 250 lbs (115 kg) on a 6’ frame (180 cm) decided only “late” to follow in his dad’s fencing footsteps trying to repeat his successes well aware that he did not have his dad’s physique or the natural talent. In spite of all this he becomes a very good foil fencer: he wins important competitions, is ranked among the top fencers in the country and misses by one or two positions to become part of the USA Olympic team, but he admits that he could not emulate with his accomplishments the technical level or the fame of his father.
But Jeff perseveres continuing with a commitment at 360 degrees: he launches initiatives and promotes activities in which he’ll not directly benefit; he also takes on to become a fencing referee culminating, his admitted “bad” character notwithstanding, with refereeing at the Olympics; he becomes a member of the FIE Rules Commission and in 2004 he is appointed, as his father had thirty years before, to lead the American team at the 2004 Olympics and to the first gold medal in a hundred years.
Two men, protagonists each of intense sporting lives and of extraordinary fencing moments, each in his own way: they are Jeff Bukantz and his father Dan and the distance referred to in the title of the book is the distance between them.
"Closing the distance" is a sentimental diary and a sports chronicle. It narrates their international fencing experiences and the personal journey of the author which reveals his great human charge through the description of his rapport with his father, a man of legend in USA fencing, and the need to emerge from the constant comparison with a parent who without knowing it is very “cumbersome.”
Though realizing that he does not possess the same athletic prowess of Dan, Jeff Bukantz decides to make a mark for himself and picks the most arduous path but also the most logical one for him, that of gaining his own identity by training with what’s got: humility, determination, always keeping an eye on the final elusive prize.
His fencing Bar Mitzvah, his emancipation, takes place ad the World Maccabean Games in Israel in 1989 when by winning over the years two gold medals in fencing, epee and foil, he starts to limit the distance between him and his father in front of the sports world but even more inside himself.
Closing the distance moves from one life to the other by stepping over a historical path which at times though parallel, is also different, marked by sports competitions, human rivalries, and anecdotes of many protagonists of the world of fencing.
In these pages which appear simple only because they describe feelings known only to the reader there is intelligence and depth, reason and emotion. This book is very helpful especially to athletes who follow for fun or obligation in the footprints left by the parents, and for the parents who often do not understand the hardships the sons have to go through just because of them.
The book makes an easy read even for those who do not completely master the English language and will be on sale at the World Championships in Torino at the FencingPhotos stand.
Closing the distance is a book that stimulates the reason and enriches your heart.
Click here to read in German or click here to read in Italian.
...to describe this as a book about fencing would be a little like calling Chariots of Fire a movie about running. It is, but there's a lot more going on than that.
Dave Thompson (Reviewer for TCM Reviews)
A few months before Jeff Bukantz was born, in 1957, his father won his fourth and final US National Foil Championship, the latest in a string of honors and trophies that dated back to the end of World War Two. A four times Olympian, Danny Bukantz was one of the finest fencers this country had ever produced- and, if that’s not going to put pressure on a son who wants to follow in his footsteps, nothing will.
Closing The Distance is aptly-titled. The younger Bukantz would himself rise to join the cream of America's fencers, and ultimately went some way towards overhauling his father, when he coached the US team to the gold at the Athens games in 2004. But to describe this as a book about fencing would be a little like calling Chariots of Fire a movie about running. It is, but there's a lot more going on than that.
Animated by a breezy, conversational air that cannot help but draw you sympathetically in, the heart of the book is, of course, the relationship between younger and elder Bukantz not, however, in terms of some ghastly, unspoken competition, but via Jeff’s need to prove himself worthy of being described (as sportscasters invariably did) as the son of a champion. There is no bitterness here, no resentment nor constant hand-wringing. Just an all-consuming drive to, indeed, close the distance between Danny's achievements and Jeff's aspirations, because he believed that was the greatest gift he could give his father.
That he ultimately succeeds (within the parameters that were available to him, of course, the proud sporting world in which Danny competed could never be compared to its ugly modern counterpart) turns out to be secondary, however. Rather, experience, both good and harsh, ultimately prove that it was not his father’s benchmark that he was trying to hurdle, but his own limitations.
By his own admission, Jeff Bukantz was never granted the same natural gifts that his father possessed; his expertise was built up through hard training, harder work and enough determination to float a battleship. But it was only once he had achieved his goals that he realized that all he’d really done was return to the exact same place that he’d started off from. He was still Danny Bukantz’s son. "And you know what? I always thought that was pretty cool."
...Jeff does not cut himself any slack, sharing the warts with the wins.
Kathy Schifferle (Veteran foil fencer and fencing mom)
Closing the Distance is very much like a great bedtime story told by a true fencing fanatic.
Well-known U.S. Fencing community stalwart Jeff Bukantz has penned a memoir spanning his career, from young athlete to referee and team captain for numerous U.S. international teams, including the 2004 Olympic Games. It's a crisp, amusing narrative that offers numerous life insights that make the time spent reading it a good investment.
If you are a fencer, it provides a wonderful view of the fencing world and the Olympic's in general over the last 35 years, with glimpses of legends from even further back. As I am relatively new to the sport, it was fascinating to "hear" how it used to be and "listen" to anecdotes of fencers that today I know as a coach, a referee, or just a legend.
If you are a parent, it paints the picture of a father that set the standard for role models. Often, an admiring child depicts a parent through rose-colored glasses; in this case it is clear that the entire international fencing community, and in fact, broader sports communities, would enthusiastically agree that Danny Bukantz was truly a world-class champion.
If you are a child (and I have learned through my association with you that many of you will never grow up!), you will recognize the struggle we all have with wanting to take what is good from our parents while creating our own, unique selves. Of course, this tarts at peak hormonal raging and is more often than not accompanied with long periods of yelling, stomping and rebelliously wrong choices…you can certainly expect a lot of that in Jeff's book.
What I personally liked best is his candid look at the personal growth of a frankly pigheaded, opinionated and antagonistic individual. In Closing the Distance, Jeff does not cut himself any slack, sharing the warts with the wins.
Through this story, I see the changes and advancements he has made; where he came from and who he is today. I can relate to how not just his father's legacy but also how the act of fencing has been his conduit to personal and the tool for a determination to achieve seemingly unreachable goals.
At the end of the day, Closing the Distance teaches us that life is not about winning the bout, but the integrity of each touch.
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