By ED LANGLOIS and JON REDDY
Catholic News Service

PORTLAND, Ore. A 2003 graduate of Valley Catholic High School in Beaverton made an emphatic point at the 2004 Olympic Games.

Mariel Zagunis, one of the world's top-rated fencers, won a gold medal for the United States in saber competition Aug. 17. It was the first time women had competed in the saber event in Olympic history.

Zagunis, 19, almost did not make it to Athens.

Her one-point loss against heralded U.S. teammate Sada Jacobsen in an Olympic qualifying match last March seemed to dash her long-held hopes of making the Olympic team.

But when Nigeria withdrew one of its fencers from competition one day in June, the International Fencing Federation could not find another African fencer and turned to the American to fill out the competition. The federation put Zagunis into an Olympic slot she was all too happy to fill.

"That whole afternoon I was all smiles," she told The Associated Press after learning the news.
June was an exciting month for Zagunis. In addition to hearing the news about Athens, she captured a gold medal at the World Cup Fencing tournament in Germany.

Zagunis joined sisters Sada and Emily Jacobsen in Athens, Greece, making the United States the only country with three athletes competing in women's saber.

She made it to the gold medal match in close rounds and then cruised through the final against China's Xue Tan before a large crowd, winning by a score of 15-9. Zagunis' teammates picked her up and tossed her skyward in celebration.

Zagunis deferred her first year of college to pursue fencing. This fall, she will begin her first year at the University of Notre Dame.

In addition to attending St. Mary of the Valley and Valley Catholic, Zagunis went to preschool on the campus of the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon.

Zagunis' parents, Robert and Cathy, both rowed for the U.S. team at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. At age 10, Zagunis followed her brother, Marten, into fencing. She also loves soccer and earned varsity letters at Valley Catholic.

"Our kids have had the opportunity to see and participate in a variety of sports because of our active lifestyle," Cathy Zagunis told the Catholic Sentinel, newspaper of the Portland Archdiocese.
"We encouraged them to follow whichever one was interesting to them and that they enjoyed."

The U.S. Fencing Association named Zagunis female athlete of the year for 2001. That year, she became the first fencer to win three world championship titles -- junior, cadet and junior team -- in one season.

Zagunis' success and charisma may be enough to lift fencing out of obscurity.

"It's not a very popular sport," she told the Sentinel in 2001. "No one knows a great deal about it."

There are three types of weapons in fencing. The foil has a rectangular blade, about 35 inches long and weighing less than 1 pound. Competitors score with the tip of the blade, which must land within the torso area.

The epee is similar in length to the foil but heavier, weighing just over 2 pounds, with a larger guard for the wrist and a stiffer blade. Touches are scored with the point of the blade, and the entire body is a target area.

A saber, which is a modern version of the slashing cavalry sword, is 2 feet 10-and-a-half-inches long and is similar in weight to the foil. The major difference is that the saber is a thrusting weapon as well as a cutting weapon. The target area is from the bend of the hips to the top of the head.

Another difference among the three weapon classifications is speed. Saber is by far the fastest of the three and Zagunis is known for her speed.

Valley Catholic followed Zagunis' progress closely, using Internet sources.

"We've been skipping up and down the halls," school spokeswoman Barbara Kerr said after the victory.

08/18/2004
Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops