USA Fencing

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – London Olympian Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and the U.S. Men’s Foil Team were recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee for their accomplishments in sweeping the individual and team gold medals at the Paris World Cup on Jan. 17-18.

Imboden, who is now ranked No. 3 in the world, won his second gold medal of the four-tournament season on the stage of the most prestigious event on the World Cup circuit. Among Imboden’s victories were wins over five-time Senior World Team Champion Peter Joppich (GER) and his 2012 Olympic teammate Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) who took home his first bronze medal of the season.

Imboden and Massialas joined with two-time Olympian Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, Calif.) and London Olympian Miles Chamley-Watson (New York City, N.Y.) in the team event where the Americans would seek another historical moment – the first time a U.S. team would win both individual and team events at the Paris World Cup.

After victories against China, the 2014 Senior World team silver medalists, and a Russian team led by the reigning individual Senior World Champion, Team USA upset Italy, the top-ranked team in the world, 45-44.

On the women’s side, skeleton racer Kendall Wesenberg was honored as the female athlete of the month after winning the Overall European Cup title.

Nominated by USA Fencing for the awards, a voting panel selects the winners from the pool of nominees with online fan voting via Twitter accounting for 10 percent of the total vote.

The top three in each category are as follows:

FEMALE

1.      Kendall Wesenberg, Skeleton

2.      Oksana Masters, Paralympic Nordic Skiing

3.      Brooke Baldwin, Water Skiing

MALE

1.      Race Imboden, Fencing

2.      Mike Shea, Paralympic Snowboarding

3.      Andy Soule, Paralympic Nordic Skiing

TEAM

1.      U.S. Men’s Foil Team, Fencing

2.      U.S. Men’s North American Cup Team, Skeleton

3.      U.S. Women’s Under-18 Team, Ice Hockey