USA Fencing

SANTIAGO, Chile — With a maximum of two athletes per country per weapon, the best any nation can do in a single fencing event at the Pan Am Games is win both gold and silver. 

On Tuesday at the 2023 Pan American Games, Team USA did exactly that. And then they did it again.

On the strength of a pair of all-USA finals, Team USA earned four medals on Tuesday. It was believed to be the greatest single-day fencing performance for Team USA in Pan Am Games history. 

In Women’s Saber, Magda Skarbonkiewicz (Oregon Fencing Alliance) won gold, and Maia Chamberlain (Manhattan Fencing Center, Advance Fencing and Fitness Academy) secured silver.

“In my finals bout, I was shaking in my pants,” Skarbonkiewicz says. “It’s 10 times harder because it’s a teammate — whether or not you usually fence them. And I've never fenced Maia in a tournament.” 

In Men’s Foil, Nick Itkin (Los Angeles International Fencing Center) took home the championship, while clubmate and fellow Olympian Miles Chamley-Watson (Los Angeles International Fencing Center) earned silver.

“A teammate bout is always difficult,” Itkin says. “We literally train together every single day, and we both train in LA with my father [coach Misha Itkin].”

The last all-USA fencing final at the Pan Am Games came in 2015, when Alexander Massialas beat Gerek Meinhardt in the Men’s Foil gold medal bout.

But to find a Pan Am Games with two all-USA finals, you must go back even further — to 2011, when Team USA did the double in Women’s Foil (Lee Kiefer over Nzingha Prescod) and Women’s Epee (Kelley Hurley over Courtney Hurley). But those two feats came on separate days.

The history doesn’t end there. 

The gold medal in Men’s Foil continues an unreal streak in the weapon for Team USA, which has now won the individual title in Men’s Foil at six straight Pan Am Games — every one since 2003: 

• 2023: Nick Itkin
• 2019: Gerek Meinhardt
• 2015: Alexander Massialas
• 2011: Alexander Massialas
• 2007: Andras Horanyi
• 2003: Dan Kellner

The gold medal streak in Women’s Saber is similarly impressive — now at four Pan Am Games in a row and counting:

• 2023: Magda Skarbonkiewicz
• 2019: Eliza Stone
• 2015: Dagmara Wozniak
• 2011: Mariel Zagunis

After her win, Skarbonkiewicz reflected on her place in the legacy of Women’s Saber fencing at the Pan Am Games — a legacy that includes Oregon Fencing Alliance clubmate and two-time Olympic champion Mariel Zagunis.

“It’s amazing, because they’re all huge legends,” Skarbonkiewicz says. “I’ve been fencing with Mariel since I was 12, 13. I’ve talked with Daga [Wozniak] so much. They’re all legends in the sport, so to be trying to start that legacy for myself and be a part of that? It’s amazing.”

For Itkin, who follows his Senior Worlds silver with a Pan Am Games gold, success at Pan Am Games is an important part of his progression into the 2023-24 FIE season and his Olympic qualification hopes.

“[Pan Am Games] was super important to me because we had a big break after World Championships, and I’ve had a history of, after a really good result, I get a little too comfortable,” he says. “So this kind of put pressure on me to get back to that competition zone.”