Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
My husband says, “gosh, the match is all over so quickly.” Like many of the best things in life. But beautiful while it’s going on. That Sara Jacobson is very pretty, isn’t she? She may live in Georgia now, but she grew up in Minnesota in a family of fencers. Her Dad is a sabre fencing champion [like someone else I know] and evidently, the family that fences together stays together. Or something.
Marianne
Marianne
Believe me a 15 point match seems like an eternity.
Now, we just need to bring back fencing at USNA.
=(
I fenced at USNA, while the club was still going. I always thought I was pretty good, until I would go to matches and see other people. The Olympic bouts were duly humbling.
Michael Phelps 200M IM finals tonight. . .he already set a new Olympic record. . . in the qualifying heat. . .
Good for these ladies to participate in a vastly under-appreciated but entirely classical sport. It’s been 20 years since I put on the mask but it was a heck of a workout. The best, however, is the pentathlon. Another classical event going by the wayside to make time for…to you sunny San Diego folks – sorry, but beach volleyball should not be an Olympic sport, nor is “water ballet.” Nor is motocross. Might as well have synchronized granny-farting while they’re at it…
The meme continues — girls with swords, again — certainly more appealing than the “Serious One” below.
Good show for US fencing, and excellent for Zagunis, the repeat gold medal (and ND!) fencer.
Can we get some Epee Coverage??
Seriously though, great job to those ladies!!
Humble1390,
Our humble scribe is too humble to admit, but I think I saw something about him in the USNA hall of fame for said sport.
Nice to finally strike gold.
W00t hoot toot! Of all the fencing sports, sabre is closest to the real thing! I mean, you can actually get hurt, slightly. Whack ‘em with the edge, a bit! Argghhh!
Which all reminds me of this really super-cool movie, “The Duelists.”
Oh, Adeo, you do mean “modern” pentathlon, right? It’s kind of aristocratic and takes serious money and/or free time to train for, but nonetheless, it is way cool and somebody should do it. It’s in the tradition of the Original Olympics, that is, it is a test of serious badass sojer skills.
Umm, that would be “The Duellists”, with two ells.
Sorry.
Ok I’m a bad person, but shouldn’t saber rattling be an Olympic sport?
Justthisguy,
Practically every Olympic sport takes time and money. The modern pentathlon simply requires a broader athletic skill set.
and if you’ve ever fenced epee… you know that you can definitely get hurt doing that. I’ve received more bruises then I can count.
I’d say Saber is closest to real sword fighting, but Epee is closest to real dueling.
Yes, maybe pentathlon is more in keeping with spirit of the games, but I much prefer to watch Women’s Beach Volleyball, which is precisely why it’s televised. TV’s gotta follow the money, you know. . .
Gentlemen and Ladies … I love fencing, as a beautiful sport with a long and illustrious history. And indeed, IIRC, it has been an official Olympic sport since 1896. Fastnav is right; you can get painfully damaged in Epee, and even in foil. Back before the Fall of Rome, in 1946 when I was in college, girls were not offered the chance to fence Sabre, although it always seemed to me to be more realistic in terms of self defense, which is what fencing was in the first place. What most women didn’t realize back then is that it was an excellent exercise to improve one’s figure — better than beach volleyball, I think. But I wouldn’t recommend doing it nearly naked. Ouch!
Marianne
Marianne-
I found the only way to get hurt with the foil was to bring your back hand around for a beat attack by your instructor…. just to remind you to keep it behind you.
There was a Russian foil fencer killed back in 1982, I believe – the point broke and the remainder went through his mask and eye and into his brain. Vladimir Smirnov, a 1980 gold medalist and 1981 world champion. Closer to home, a Princeton epeeist was twice injured fencing at Navy. Got run through the abdomen by a broken tip my plebe year, and fell, breaking his wrist the next year.
Sabre always hurt, and there were times – especially with Hungarian blades, back before the sport was electrified – that I looked like some class of S&M addict. Never really felt that I might get killed doing it though.
Sim … thanks for the good advice. Wish you’d been around when I was fencing. Does anyone know when the epee and foil matches are scheduled? Our newspaper sports and TV schedules are singularly uncommunicative. In Athens at the Olympics, they always were scheduled at 2 or 3 a.m. our time, making it a real drag to wake up and get up. {we don’t have a program recorder thing or we can’t work it}.
I always thought, when younger, that it would be useful when I got old to know something about fencing. I’d love to own a swordstick, because most people would think it was a cane. But there are few if any swordsticks on the market.
Why is that?
Marianne
Banned in Cali. But Ive seen ‘em in the CheaperThanDirt.com catalog, and in the sword lover’s store in Japantown in SFO I think they have ‘em in the back somewhere…
Marianne –
The http://www.NBCOlympics.com website has a great listing for all the sports, and those that aren’t televised they have live web feeds for. I watched Seth Kelsey go out in a blaze of glory in the round of 32 for men’s epee last night.
Fast Nav … thanks so much for the link. My husband and I may still have all our buttons, but we are somewhat technologically challenged, in spite of our best efforts.
Marianne
ND needs to update their fencing page.
http://www.nd.edu/~fencing/web/index.htm
Although it appears she may not have been on the school team during either of her Olympic medal wins.
Go Irish!