A World Power On The Rise: Why the US Olympic Fencing Team Has A Good Chance Of Winning Their First Gold Medal After a Century of Falling Short By Jeff Bukantz, Captain of the 2004 US Olympic Team   The US has been anything but a world power when it comes to fencing. In fact, the last time the US fencing team won a medal was in 1984 when Peter Westbrook won the bronze at the Los Angeles Games. Twenty-four years earlier, the late Albert Axelrod won the bronze in men's foil at the 1960 Rome Olympics. Since the inception of the Olympics in 1896, the US has never won gold in fencing. There are 2 stars on this year's team of Olympic fencing hopefuls who could change all that in Athens: their names are Keeth Smart and Sada Jacobson.   Keeth Smart Brooklyn-born Keeth Smart became the first American fencer to earn top ranking when he finished #1 in men's saber during the 2003 World Cup season. While Keeth is currently ranked #12, he has beaten everyone in the world, and is fully capable of breaking through to the medal podium. Keeth's rise to the top was meteoric, and it proved easier to reach the mountaintop than to stay there. That's because there is a very fine line between striving to win and taking a title from the opponent than being afraid to lose and having the opponent take it away from you. The timing of Keeth's minor drop-off might be fortuitous. He is regaining the eye-of-the-tiger that made him dominant in 2003. Keeth, a St. John's University grad, has been given leave from his job at Verizon since February in order to train. It is amazing that Keeth, who worked 40 plus hours a week, was able to reach #1 against opponents who do nothing but train all day, every day.   Sada Jacobson Sada Jacobson of Atlanta is currently ranked #1 in women's saber. She is the first American woman to earn the world's top ranking and the first U.S. fencer of either gender to claim the title of overall World Cup champion. Sada won the gold medal in saber at last year's Pan American Games in the Dominican Republic. She took the year off from Yale in order to train, and is the favorite going into Athens, where women's saber will be held as a medal event for the first time. Sada won the Junior World Championship in Trapani, Sicily in April 2003, but has been dominant at the Senior level, as well. It should be noted that Sada's younger sister Emily has also qualified for the Olympics and is ranked #10 in the World. Emily duplicated Sada's feat by winning the gold at the Junior Worlds in Plovdiv, Bulgaria this April.   Why US Fencing Has Waited So Long for Gold Though the international political scene has changed in the 20 years since the US won our last medal, little has changed for this year's team of Olympic fencing hopefuls. In the eyes of the world, we are underdogs yet again. The odds certainly are against us. The American team faces stiff competition from traditional powerhouses like Germany, France, Russia, and Italy, as well as up and comers like South Korea and China. Though unquestionably talented, the athletes from these countries have two major advantages most American athletes do not share: time and money. Many European and Asian players are basically full-time professional fencers, who receive funding from their governments. Even after the Soviet Union was dismantled, many of its former bloc countries have continued to sponsor their athletes. The Italians and French have traditionally dominated the sport partly through their financial might. The Italian Fencing Federation receives funding from the national sports lottery and French Fencing Federation also receives direct funding from the state. Most adult US fencing team members (like Keeth Smart) work full-time jobs or attend university on top of practice and competition. Our athletes therefore tend to be on equal footing with the international powerhouses only at the younger ages. We have been extremely successful at the Junior (under-20) and Cadet (under-17) levels, and in April 2004 garnered six medals and three World Championships (Caitlin Thompson, Cadet Women's Saber; Emily Jacobson, Junior Women's Saber; Junior Women's Saber Team) at the recently completed Junior/Cadet Worlds. The membership of the United State Fencing Association (USFA) has more than doubled to nearly 20,000 in the last decade, and that is mainly due to an influx of young fencers. We have the critical mass of fencers and coaches to remain a major player at the younger age levels, but we seem to drop off once the athletes are off to college or the real world. Despite the odds against us, the United State Olympic Team will travel to Athens with the abnormally high hopes of bringing home our first gold medal ever. These are not pie-in-the-sky hopes based on an expectation of last minute luck, but realistic projections based on the fact that we have had two fencers achieve the #1 ranking in the world in the last year - something that has never happened before in the history of American fencing.   My Role As Team Captain As Captain of the team, I will be doing my best to keep Keeth and Sada on an even keel. While the pressure to qualify for the Games was enormous, they will have the weight of the world on their shoulders in Athens. The expectations of the USFA, their coaches, their peers and their families will be sky-high, and my job will be to make sure the fencers are somewhat insulated from these omnipresent pressures. I feel I am especially qualified to serve as Captain. My father Danny Bukantz was a four-time Olympic fencing team member, and five-time Olympic referee. I have refereed at both the 1984 Los Angeles and 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and served as an Olympic team alternate in 1984 and 1988. I understand from direct experience the kind of pressures Keeth and Sada will be facing on the world stage. The fencing in Athens can be over in a matter of minutes. It is imperative that Keeth and Sada understand that all of the years of blood, sweat, and tears cannot be erased under any circumstances. My goal is to emphasize that they came in as winners, and they leave as winners…no matter what the result. At the end of the day, it would be tremendous for American fencing to come home with a medal or two. But, with or without a medal, this September Sada Jacobson goes back to Yale, Keeth Smart goes back to Verizon, and they will live to duel another day.   Fencing Resources For more information on the 2004 US Fencing team, please visit www.olympic-usa.org www.fencing101.com www.usfencing.org Jeff Bukantz Livingston, NJ Captain, 2004 US Olympic Fencing Team