dude, sweet

Taken from the US Fencing Association website:

HISTORY BEING MADE: At the Olympic Games, both Sada Jacobson and Mariel Zagunis have made the final 4, which assures the USA of at least 1 medal!

This will be the first Olympic fencing medal ever won by an American woman!

The semi-final bouts are scheduled to begin at 11:30 EDT.

Dude! Sweet!!!!

A couple things for background:
1) Those two are sabreuses. Sabre was my weapon of choice when I fenced. It's awesome, fast-paced, terrifying, and brutal. :)

2) Women's sabre was only made an Olympic sport after Sydney. It has never been in the Olympics before, while men's foil has been in the Olympics since the very first modern one. This event is a big breakthrough for women's sports.
(It has been suggested that the very reason the international fencing federation (FIE) did not fight for women's sabre is that the US is so strong in it, and there is a lot of anti-American sentiment and petty politicking there. I won't really get into it, but it has been noted that the women's foil team was denied the bronze in Sydney on a very, very questionable call in favor of the Germans. It would have (obviously) been a tremendous upset if they had won. So to a lot of people, the very thought of the US winning a medal in Olympic fencing is massively huge.)

I don't know if it will be televised. Bravo is going to be showing some fencing at 5 pm EDT today, but I don't know if that's the fencing it will show. It would totally RULE if it were. That's HUGE.

So, I'm psyched about that.
personal news follows:

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streaming fencing video

If your Italian's up to snuff, snag yourself a Windows Media Player (ugh) and you can watch the fencing action live.

More enlightened nations actually care about fencing.

fencing, on TV, and American history in the making

sada jacobson won the bronze and mariel zagunis is leading the gold medal match 8-2 after the first period.

Whatever they put on TV tonight, WATCH IT. This has been some amazing fencing and it is well worth watching even if you have no idea what's going on. It's pretty darn apparent. You gotta see this.

It's on Bravo starting at 5 pm EDT (though the fencing might not start until 6).

Added: A guide to watching fencing for those who never have.

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