By Shara Talia Taylor
A top ranked New York fencing competitor and Olympic qualifier, finished the USA fencing season strong in Philadelphia over the 4th of July weekend.
35-yr-old Adam Rodney joined more than 5,000 fencing athletes ranging in age from 7 to 80-yrs-old (according to USA fencing) to compete at the 2021 USA Fencing National Championships July 3-12 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.Rodney, who is an alternate on the Olympic fencing team for the upcoming 2021 Tokyo Olympics, placed 3rd at the tournament on Sunday.
“A lot of people come here to make their mark on the sport,” Rodney said. “It doesn’t count toward the Olympics, but it is kind of a capstone on that time, for me at least.”
Most of the Olympic team members were not competing with Tokyo around the corner. The team was in place prior to this past weekend’s competition. After the regular season continued, following a stop due to the COVID-19 pandemic members were chosen based on rank, points accumulated from tournaments during the 2020 season that continued into 2021. A competitor gains points at this national tournament that will count towards ranking for the next season. “This quad was about as close as I’ve ever come,” Rodney said.
Rodney, a two-time member of the Senior World championship teams, ranks #4 in the U.S. in fencing in the epee event, one of several fencing styles: epee, foil and saber. He started fencing in New Orleans at the age of 17 and attended college at St. John’s University, where he eventually received a full scholarship for the sport. Now a youth coach and competitor with the Peter Westbrook Foundation at the Fencer’s club in New York City.
“I fenced with the Peter Westbrook foundation in New York and we work with inner city and often underprivileged kids to learn the sport of fencing so that they can advance in their lives and hopefully in their fencing careers, but firstly most in their lives,” he said.
Sunday morning Rodney led early with wins at USA fencing’s biggest domestic event.
“This is Adam here, you can tell by his style of fencing,” said 60-yr.-old Mark Nixon, who attended the event as a competitor and as a supporter for his daughters and members from his club in Los Angeles, who were competing. “Some guys’ style is so distinctive that you can be far away and see them fence and not see the name on their jacket and know that’s who it is.”
Nixon stood nearby providing helpful coaching tips for a fellow club member in the morning “pool”. He explained fencers start the tournament in a “pool” of competitors. Each bout, or match, is three minutes long or the first to reach five points. The fencers leading in those pools are ranked after those matches. The top 75% then competed in the direct elimination advancing bracket, competitions with 15 touches or points. Rodney used a French grip quickly to finish off opponents in the pool and advance to 3rd place. “This is where the Olympians come from, out of this group,” Nixon said.
Next Rodney heads to Tokyo as an alternate and training partner.
“I think this is one of the strongest teams in epee that this country has ever had,” Rodney said. “I think it’s probably one of the strongest teams across all the weapons, but in epee they really have a chance to do something special.”
