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Happy New Year Members,
As we turn the corner into 2024, the organization has a refreshed new Strategic Plan. I know you are wondering what that means for you, and why you should care. This is the document that essentially lays out how USA Fencing is hoping to move forward for the next four years. We had input for the first time from across the membership and spent a facilitated weekend with the board, staff and key committees. The new plan emphasizes community, growth, innovation and responsibility. That doesn’t, though, take away from focal points such as inclusion, member safety and integrity.
Most answers to improving an organization are found within its membership. So if you’ve got a great growth idea, a link with a potential college partner or potential sponsor you’d be able to share, thoughts on how you’d like to see local events expand, or any other item you can think of, hit reply or send them to us here.
Since we last connected, USA Fencing welcomed to our team Jennifer Vernon, a former NCAA Fencer at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and A’Niya Sconiers. Both are in our membership team, and those of you who attended the January NAC in San Jose may have gotten the opportunity to meet Jennifer already. A’Niya brings a wealth of talent from her time with the Tampa Bay Rays and Washington Commanders, and Jennifer’s skills and fencing background will be invaluable. Our team is made up of incredible humans, but most (including myself) have no background on the strip. Jennifer’s first-hand knowledge of the member experience in USA Fencing is really a great addition.
I’m writing this as I travel back from the NCAA Convention in Phoenix (anyone remember this convention center from last summer?). We had a tremendously successful time discussing growth to our sport with around 20 interested colleges, including one Top 20 academic institution (thanks to a donor-led introduction). It’s reasonable to expect we could see an institution or two shortly announce the introduction of our sport to their NCAA offerings.
Another notable outcome in Phoenix was the strong support for fencing expressed by multiple athletic directors who currently have a fencing program on campus. As I wrote this at the airport, one athletic director stopped by to remind me how pleased she is with what she views as a cornerstone program on her campus. She offered her help with our new possible colleges.
On the strip, while I’ve been out on paternity leave, there have been two big national tournaments — the SJCC in Richmond and the NAC in San Jose, which also featured a dinner honoring the outstanding achievements of our 40+ Fencers who once again won the Veteran World medal count earlier for their success last season. A moment of thanks to all the armory, sports med, officials, bout committee, suppliers and of course our staff team who work hard to make these events possible. Your feedback scores tell us events this season are more enjoyable still than last season!
A little farther from home, the International Regional Circuit returned to Hong Kong, China, for the first time since the pandemic. Together with partners at Absolute, we're working towards new opportunities next season, potentially both inside and outside of Asia.
And speaking of overseas, our international results for Team USA continue to be absolutely outstanding. This season so far we’ve seen gold medals won by Team USA or Team USA athletes in all three weapons!
Our para team is currently continuing their path to the Paralympic Games. While it’s clear much more development is needed (see the commitment to parafencing in our Strategic Plan), our team continues to be on track to qualify multiple athletes to Paris. They just finished a solid trip to a World Cup in Cardiff, Great Britain.
Of course I do need to address some of the less positive news that has come up in our sport recently. Between December and early January, we’ve had several serious misconduct allegations, which have resulted in interim measures being put in place addressing the safety of our membership and integrity of our sport.
Many of those are ongoing investigations by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, or at the USA Fencing level, and therefore it’s not appropriate to comment further now. One, however, that I can comment on is the permanent sanction of Alen Hadzic. He lost his appeal at the U.S. Center for SafeSport and is now permanently prohibited from participating in any Olympic or Paralympic sport in the USA. We hope and trust other bodies will recognize the decision made by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, however long it took, and give the survivors in this case the peace they deserve.
We need to continue to work to make and keep fencing a safe place to enjoy sport, and to ensure the integrity of the field of play. To that end, we encourage folks to report issues to USA Fencing or the U.S. Center for SafeSport as appropriate. (See reporting options here.)
Thankfully, the majority of news coming out of USA Fencing is overwhelmingly positive. To that end, we’re working on our ramp-up to take advantage of NBC’s coverage of the Olympic and Paralympic Games by bringing fencing experiences to focus cities across the nation, including New York City, Los Angeles (home of the 2028 Games) and other major metro areas across the nation. We’re also ramping up our media outreach, which is already seeing features on our sport being lined up by the likes of Bloomberg, Vogue, Health & Fitness, various local NBC stations and more. If you have an intriguing fencing story to tell, tell us and help us share it!
Much of our progress is made possible by our sponsors who are keen to help us grow the sport. We recently signed major rental car brand Avis, with a connection made by a member (thank you!). Our teams will be using Avis worldwide, and we encourage you to do so too. Avis is providing a discount to USA Fencing members, but we will only retain their support and support from other USA Fencing sponsors if our members support these brands. My ask? Where you have rental car needs for fencing or otherwise, use the USA Fencing discount by booking through this link.
We also signed InGenius Prep in December who have started providing educational opportunities to you all, which complements nicely our agreement with Avenues: The World School. This month we’ll announce at least two more agreements, and again one is thanks to a member intro. The power is in you!
Talking of membership support, our U.S. Fencing Foundation continues to build momentum. This is a way you can use your donor dollars to support areas you feel strongly about — be that college growth, the future of a given weapon, Veteran fencing or whatever that might be.
One of the foundation’s signature events, our Fencing Foundation Fête, returns on May 9 in New York City. We’re already on track to welcome almost double the number of attendees from our 2023 event. Hit reply if you would like to sponsor a table and join us for a toast to our Olympic and Paralympic teams as they head to Paris.
That’s quite enough for now! Thanks for being a member of USA Fencing, we’re excited to serve our membership in another year!
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