USA Fencing

On the strip, they tend to look the same: a white protective jacket with matching knickers; a long epee, weighing about 1 1/2 pounds with a blade measuring 43 inches; and a mask that obscures each fencer’s identity. The difference between competitors is usually found behind that mask, said Kat Holmes, the second-ranked epee fencer in the country.

“At the highest level, for the most part, everybody’s strong, everybody’s fast, everybody knows all the actions,” Holmes said. “The biggest differentiator is the mental game.”

The 22-year-old District native is a neuroscience major at Princeton who is likely bound for the 2016 Olympics. She has been fencing since she was 9, when she stumbled across “The Song of a Lioness” series by Tamora Pierce about a young girl in medieval times who pretends to be a boy to become a knight ... more>