USA Fencing

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — With less than two weeks to go until the 2023 Parafencing National Championships & March North American Cup in Fort Worth, Texas, we’re sharing a couple of quick reminders and clarifications about the Cadet Team events being held at this tournament.

Birth Year Reminder

Each year, the birth years of fencers eligible to compete at the Junior and Cadet levels advance by one year. This happens immediately after the Junior Olympics, because that tournament is the national championship for these categories.

Now that the 2023 Junior Olympics are complete, Cadet and Cadet Team events at the March NAC will operate under the new date ranges. That means fencers with birth years between 2007 and 2010 are eligible to compete as Cadets. 

(For a full listing of the eligible birth years in each event, use this link.)

We bring this up because of the way our registration system processes team events. While a fencer with an ineligible birthdate is unable to register for a Cadet individual event, we are unable to enforce that restriction in our registration system for Cadet Team events because it would prevent coaches from being able to register a team. 

As such, we’re asking coaches with ineligible fencers registered for a Cadet Team event to contact USA Fencing immediately by emailing nationalevents@usafencing.org. If you must withdraw due to one or more fencers being age-ineligible, you will be entitled to a refund of event fees.

Remember: Age-ineligible fencers will not be permitted to compete in the team event.

Club Requirement Reminder

And now the good news: Because the Club Team event at the March NAC is not a team championship event (unlike, for example, the Junior Team events at the Junior Olympics), the requirement for all fencers to share a primary club affiliation is not in effect.

In other words, teams may be composed of fencers from multiple clubs, if desired. For example, a team of four could have fencers who represent one, two, three or four different clubs