PORTLAND, Ore. — To celebrate the start of the 2024 Paris Olympics, USA Fencing is hosting an interactive fencing demonstration and tutorial at Director Park in Portland every day this week. The event is part of its Fencing Across America initiative, which is making stops at 16 different spots across the country this week.
IF YOU GO
Fencing Across America at Director Park
- When: Sunday, July 29 through Sunday, Aug. 1, 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.
- Where: Director Park, 815 Southwest Park Avenue, Portland
- What: Fencing Across America offers a unique opportunity for future fencing fans to pick up a blade and experience the thrill of the sport firsthand.
Participants at Director Park this week will be able to learn and experience the sport of fencing. "Fans will have the opportunity to get in on the action and try their hand in a sport that has been life-changing for many," USA Fencing said in a news release. The event will go from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. each day this week. It started Sunday and goes through Sunday, Aug. 4.
Michael McTigue, executive director for Northwest Fencing Center, was at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the event Monday morning. He said Portland is a logical place for Fencing Across America to visit.
"It's actually huge (in Portland). Over 16 Olympians in fencing have come out of the Portland area," he said. "It's a real hotbed of fencing. ... A small city like this actually supports five full-time fencing clubs."
McTigue said a current focus is trying to get more young women involved in fencing. He said many girls drop out of the sport in their early teenage years, between the ages of 13 and 15. Northwest Fencing Center started the Athena Project to support women and girls in fencing. The project hosts fencing camps exclusively for women and girls and training camps for women coaches.
Also in town Monday for the ceremony was USA National Team member Chloe Fox-Gitomer, a 2019 Pan American gold medalist. Fox-Gitomer trains at the Oregon Fencing Alliance under Adam Skarbonkiewicz, the father and coach of 18-year-old fencing phenom Magda Skarbonkiewicz, who made her Olympic debut in Paris with Team USA on Monday.
Skarbonkiewicz, 18, from Beaverton, lost her round-of-32 bouts in the women's individual saber.