Not many people know this, but I was an avid fencer in my youth and competed in sabre at the 1983 USFA Nationals, which was held at the University of California at San Francisco that year. One of my goals in fencing had always been to someday compete in the Nationals, but I was still amazed when I qualified at a tournament in Long Beach. I was determined to go, even though I was a grad student and short of money at the time. I drove my old truck to San Francisco—more than six hours away—and slept in it at night outside the venue.
I can’t say I was one of the top competitors. I think I got cut down in the first elimination round. It didn’t matter. I made it. I was at the Nationals competing with the top fencers in the nation. The best was certainly Peter Westbrook. I got to see him fence a couple of times there, and he took top honors in sabre.
It was no surprise that Peter made the Olympic team the following year in Los Angeles. I was living in Long Beach then, which was where the Olympic fencing events took place. I’ll never forget watching him compete in the sabre finals against Frenchman Herve Granger-Veyron. It was an epic battle, and Granger-Veyron fell to his knees and wept when he lost. Peter won a bronze medal that day, the first Olympic fencing medal won by an American since Albert Axelrod’s bronze medal for foil in 1960.
He founded the Peter Westbrook Foundation in 1991 to support and mentor budding fencers, mostly from underrepresented groups. Several have gone on to win Olympic medals, including most recently Lauren Scruggs, who won a Silver Medal yesterday.
Sadly, Peter could not attend the Paris Olympics. He has stage 4 liver cancer and cannot be around crowds, but he watched Lauren’s bout proudly on television. I know what a determined battler he is, and I wish him well in this fight.
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