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ACEP Now: Vol 35 – No 12 – December 2016Men’s foil team, who won bronze medals at the Rio Olympics. Left to right: Alexander Massialas, Gerek Meinhardt, Ann Marsh-Senic, Miles Chamley-Watson, and Race Imboden.
AM: We have a few events, and so for that particular event, it’s a relay. But it’s different than in other relays because you don’t fence just the one person—you fence everyone on the other team. There are four people on the team, but there are actually three people competing. Alternates can go in and come back out.
KK: When were you named the captain of this team?
AM: In December 2015. After the world championships last year I wrote them a letter saying I’d be interested in doing it for the whole team. US fencing has like a sports performance committee that nominated me, and then the president appointed me as the captain for 2016.
KK: Well, that is really exciting. Have there been other female captains for this team?
AM: Actually, no.
KK: That’s very exciting.
AM: Yes, I guess. I never thought about it.
KK: When you are thinking of gender equity issues, any time a woman aspires to a new leadership role, I think its worthy of pause and it’s important to take notice. I understand you are very humble, and it probably didn’t cross your mind that you were breaking a glass ceiling of any kind with this. But maybe you have.
AM: I never really thought of it. I’ve only thought of it in the ways that I interact with the coaches because all of the national coaches are males.
KK: So you were selected because you were the right person.
AM: Yeah.
KK: I’m very interested to hear about your Olympic experience this past summer. What was the venue like? I heard about contaminated water and security issues.
AM: The honest truth? The venue was great. Before every Olympics, the media goes off on these tangents about water quality or safety, or they aren’t going to be ready in time. Really, we had a pretty seamless trip. The venue was spectacular, and I think the tournament was run really well. The main thing at the Olympics is to have on-time transportation that’s reliable, and that was my only worry going into it, but the transportation was perfect.
KK: With your team, was there any particular challenge, injuries or illness, or some issue that made your role as captain really critical?
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