USA Fencing

MILAN, Italy — When the moment is at its biggest, Nick Itkin OLY shines.

Itkin, the 23-year-old fencing phenom and Notre Dame graduate who trains at the renowned Los Angeles International Fencing Center won a silver medal in Men’s Foil on Thursday, the sixth day of the 2023 Fencing World Championships in Italy.

With the medal, Itkin has now won three Senior Worlds medals in the past two years: individual bronze and team silver in 2022 and now individual silver in 2023.

Itkin, who is coached by Michael Itkin (his father) and Igor Zapozdaev, seems to rise up in the biggest possible moments. The past two seasons, his best results have come at the highest level of fencing: Senior Worlds.

In the 2021-22 season, Itkin’s best result at an FIE tournament was sixth at the Plovdiv World Cup in April 2022. He then went on to earn bronze at the 2022 Worlds.

In the 2022-23 campaign, Itkin’s best result was also sixth, this time at the Acapulco World Cup in May 2023. Once again, his best result comes at the World Championships.

“I think it’s just the preparation,” he says. “For World Championships, we go through training camp, we train with the best fencers. And just something about that puts me in the right mindset, I think.”

In the gold medal final against Italy’s Tommaso Marini, Itkin came back from down 11-6 to tie the bout at 11 but ultimately fell short in front of a crowd that was almost entirely rooting for his Italian opponent.

Rather than feeling intimidated by the pro-Italy crowd, Itkin used it as motivation.

“I love it. This is what the sport needs,” he says. “You know, I love hearing the crowd even though it’s for the other fencer. I wish we could have this all the time.”

The crowd provided extra motivation, Itkin says, even if his favorite noise from the audience was no noise at all.

“Silencing the crowd?” he says. “That’s the best.”

Up next, Itkin gets one day off before he and his teammates begin the two-day Men’s Foil team event on Saturday.

Elsewhere in Men’s Foil, all four Team USA athletes retained their top 16 rankings. Gerek Meinhardt OLY lost in the Round of 64, Alex Massialas OLY fell in the Round of 32, and Miles Chamley-Watson OLY made it to the Round of 16 before losing to the eventual bronze medalist.

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In Women’s Saber, Team USA had three of its fencers advance to the Round of 32.

Leading the way was Elizabeth Tartakovsky (Manhattan Fencing Center, Harvard University), who finished 19th — a promising improvement over her 73rd place finish at her Senior Worlds debut last summer in Cairo.

A pair of Team USA newcomers, Magda Skarbonkiewicz (Oregon Fencing Alliance) and Maia Chamberlain (Manhattan Fencing Center, Advance Fencing And Fitness Academy), also finished with results in the top 25 — 21st for Skarbonkiewicz and 24th for Chamberlain.

In the Men’s Saber Team Event, the squad of Eli Dershwitz OLY, Colin Heathcock, Andrew Doddo and Mitchell Saron advanced to the second day of competition after wins over India and Romania. They’ll fence in the quarterfinals against Germany on Friday morning.

In the Women’s Epee Team Event, the quartet of Isis Washington, Kasia Nixon, Anne Cebula and Hadley Husisian bounced back from a Round of 16 loss to Israel to win two matches in a row — over Egypt and Hungary — before falling to Estonia in the 9/10 match and finishing 10th. Importantly, Team USA finished ahead of all others from the Americas zone, which will help our Olympic qualification chances.

Kat Holmes OLY, who was unable to fence because of injury, was by her teammates’ side throughout, cheering them on and offering support in any way she could.

Women’s Saber:

• Elizabeth Tartakovsky: 19th Place
  • Round of 64: Defeated Marina Paizi (Greece), 15-13
  • Round of 32: Lost to Rossella Gregorio (Italy), 15-10
• Magda Skarbonkiewicz: 21st Place
  • Round of 64: Defeated Wing Kiu Chu (Hong Kong), 15-7
  • Round of 32: Lost to Larissa Eifler (Germany), 15-12
• Maia Chamberlain: 24th Place
  • Round of 64: Defeated Eunhye Jeon (South Korea), 15-12
  • Round of 32: Lost to Anna Bashta (Azerbaijan), 15-6
• Tatiana Nazlymov: 42nd Place
  • Round of 64: Lost to Hayoung Jeon (Korea), 15-10

Men’s Foil:

• Alex Massialas OLY: 17th Place
  • Round of 64: Defeated Maximilian Ettelt (Austria), 15-12
  • Round of 32: Lost to Carlos Llavador (Spain), 15-11
• Gerek Meinhardt OLY: 33rd Place
  • Round of 64: Lost to Jun Heo (Korea), 15-11
• Nick Itkin OLY: Silver Medal Place
  • Round of 64: Defeated Yudai Nagano (Japan), 15-6
  • Round of 32: Defeated Ziwei Mo (China), 15-7
  • Round of 16: Defeated Chun Yin Ryan Choi (Hong Kong), 15-10
  • Quarterfinals: Defeated Carlos Llavador (Spain), 15-8
  • Semifinals: Defeated Kyosuke Matsuyama (Japan), 15-10
  • Finals: Lost to Tommaso Marini (Italy), 15-13
• Miles Chamley-Watson OLY: 12th Place
  • Round of 64: Defeated Chi Ka Yeung (Hong Kong), 15-7
  • Round of 32: Defeated Haiwei Chen (China), 15-4
  • Round of 16: Lost to Enzo Lefort (France), 15-5

Women’s Epee — Team (Isis Washington, Kasia Nixon, Anne Cebula, Hadley Husisian): 10th place

• Round of 64: Bye
• Round of 32: Defeated Colombia, 45-21
• Round of 16: Lost to Israel, 45-38
• 9-16 placement match: Defeated Egypt, 45-23
• 9-12 placement match: Defeated Hungary, 45-40
• 9-10 placement match: Lost to Estonia, 36-35

Men’s Saber — Team (Eli Dershwitz, Colin Heathcock, Andrew Doddo, Mitchell Saron):

• Round of 64: Bye
• Round of 32: Defeated India, 45-22
• Round of 16: Defeated Romania, 45-38

See more than 100 great photos here.