Oscar-Nominated Composer Laura Karpman to Score LA28 Fencing Anthem — With Fencers at Her Side

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The composer who scored Marvel's Captain America: Brave New World, earned an Oscar nomination for American Fiction, created a Grammy-winning opera for Carnegie Hall, and won Emmys for her work with Steven Spielberg is now turning her attention to a project closer to her heart than most people know.

USA Fencing has commissioned Laura Karpman to compose the official fencing anthem for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games. This marks the first time that a sport has had its own Olympic and Paralympic anthem.

The announcement brings together one of Hollywood's most celebrated composers and a sport she discovered during the pandemic and has trained in ever since.

Karpman joyfully comments, “Fencing and music are first cousins. They are both about rhythm, precision, grace, and when required, fierceness. I’m thrilled to be writing a theme for our Olympic and Paralympic fencers for LA28. As a second-generation native Angeleno, I feel particularly passionate about seeing our city and our beloved sport explode on the international scene.”

Karpman, a five-time Emmy winner whose credits span the Marvel Cinematic Universe, HBO's Lovecraft Country and the Steven Spielberg miniseries Taken, picked up fencing in 2020 when a friend suggested a club for her son. She tried it herself, started with epee and switched to foil when she returned to Los Angeles. Today she trains at Los Angeles International Fencing Center.

On the heels of her recent opera about the Battle of the Sexes tennis match, and her score for the 2026 Sundance Billie Jean King documentary, Give Me The Ball, Karpman is no stranger to the intersection of sports, film and music. 

“This project could not be a better fit,” says USA Fencing CEO Phil Andrews. “Laura is a towering creative talent who also happens to be one of us. The idea that she will shape the sound of fencing at the Los Angeles Olympics and Paralympics is something this community should be incredibly proud of.”

Karpman will lead the anthem project from composition through recording. Details about the recording process, collaborators and premiere timeline will be announced in the coming months.

What is already clear: the fencing community will be part of it.

Earlier this year, USA Fencing put out a call to its 50,000-plus members asking fencers who also play music to make themselves known. The response was striking. More than 1,082 fencing musicians across the country — spanning orchestral instruments, guitar, voice, percussion and more — signed up, forming what may be the most unusual musical database in fencing history.

That database will inform how the anthem comes to life. USA Fencing and Karpman are working through the details of how fencing musicians will be incorporated into the recording, and further information will be shared as plans are finalized.

LA28 will mark the first time the Olympic Games have returned to Los Angeles since 1984. Fencing competitions at those Games were held at Long Beach Arena.

Fencing musicians who have not yet added their name to the database can do so at this link. Stay tuned to usafencing.org for updates on the anthem project.