The U.S. Olympic fencing roster is complete. It will be the largest in history should all 24 athletes compete in Tokyo.
Women’s Sabre Mariel Zagunis, Eliza Stone, Dagmara Wozniak, Francesca Russo
Men’s Sabre Eli Dershwitz, Daryl Homer, Andrew Mackiewicz, Khalil Thompson
Women’s Foil Lee Kiefer, Jackie Dubrovich, Nicole Ross, Sabrina Massialas
Men’s Foil Gerek Meinhardt, Alexander Massialas, Nick Itkin, Race Imboden
Women’s Epee Courtney Hurley, Kelley Hurley, Katharine Holmes, Anna van Brummen
Men’s Epee Jake Hoyle, Curtis McDowald, Yeisser Ramirez, Alen Hadzic
LIST: U.S. athletes qualified for Tokyo Olympics (all sports)
The last two athletes clinched spots on Friday -- Khalil Thompson and Alen Hadzic.
The first three athletes listed above for each discipline qualified for individual and team events. The fourth athlete is a replacement athlete for the team event only and, if rules are the same as in 2016, can be subbed in mid-competition for strategic purposes.
Mariel Zagunis, the most decorated U.S. fencer in history who owns individual gold from 2004 and 2008, leads the Olympic team once again.
She is going to a fifth Olympics at age 36 — and her first since giving birth to daughter Sunday Noelle in October 2017. Zagunis is in line to become the oldest U.S. Olympic fencer since 1996.
Zagunis is the lone U.S. fencer to win an Olympic title since 1904, but there are gold-medal contenders on this team.
Gerek Meinhardt and Eli Dershwitz are ranked No. 2 in the world in foil and sabre, respectively. Two other men, Alexander Massialas (foil) and Daryl Homer (sabre), took individual silver medals at the 2016 Rio Games. The U.S. men’s sabre team won the last world title in 2019.
Tokyo marks the first Olympics with team events in all six disciplines. The Olympics added individual women’s sabre in 2004. It added team women’s sabre in 2008, but from 2008-16, one of the team events for each gender was fallowed each Olympics.
The previous largest U.S. Olympic fencing team in history was in 1936 (22 fencers), when the team events (then men’s only) included six fencers, according to Olympedia.org.
Ibtihaj Muhammad, who in Rio became the first Muslim-American woman to compete at the Olympics with a hijab, announced her retirement in 2019.
OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!