Fencer Race Imboden caused a stir when he knelt for the anthem at the Pan-Am Games. But his sport is more diverse than many would think

If you think fencing, you may think of a sport practiced by the upper classes everywhere from elite universities to the denouement of Hamlet. Or you may picture Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride, a film that put Mandy Patinkin and Cary Elwes through rigorous training to play the chivalrous duelists who became allies after a breathtaking scene that name-dropped actual fencing masters Bonetti, Capo Ferro, Thibault and Agrippa.

But, in the United States at least, fencing isn’t just a pastime for the ossified, insular gentry. The American fencing community is relatively diverse and worldly. So it’s no surprise that someone from this cosmopolitan community, Race Imboden, has taken athlete protests to the next level by kneeling on the podium after winning gold at the Pan-Am Games.

Imboden listed several reasons for his actions, including racism in the States and “a president who spreads hate”. He also mentioned gun control, a timely comment after the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, and the equally timely issue of the US government’s treatment of immigrants.

The 26-year-old Imboden, a two-time Olympian and bronze medalist in the 2016 team event, isn’t the first athlete to kneel during the national anthem, a means of protest popularized by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. He’s not even the first to kneel while wearing a US uniform, as Megan Rapinoe did at women’s soccer friendlies in 2016. And Imboden himself took a knee, along with teammate Miles Chamley-Watson, at a World Cup event in 2017.

But kneeling at the Pan-Am Games has raised the stakes. It’s not the biggest event on US television in August, but it’s still an important event for America’s Olympians. Imboden had company as well – American hammer thrower Gwen Berry raised a fist on the podium in a move reminiscent of John Carlos and Tommie Smith’s iconic moment at the 1968 Olympics.

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Imboden has support from his fellow fencers too. “I’m glad to see any athlete with a platform stand up for equality and against the rising hate in America, whether they are a soccer player, fencer or football player,” says Becca Ward, who won two saber bronzes in the 2008 Olympics. “We all have a part to play saying this isn’t acceptable and demanding more from our country and fellow citizens.”

The fencing community has long drawn from elite universities with progressive-minded students. Columbia University, which won its 16th national championship in March, has been rated among the most liberal colleges in the country. Other schools in fencing’s top 12 included Harvard, Yale, Duke, Princeton, Penn, Northwestern and Stanford, none of which would be likely to have a majority of students voting for Donald Trump.

Imboden is one of the exceptions who did not pass through college fencing at an elite or large state university, but there’s a catch. He was set to fence at St John’s but decided against it rather than give up income from his modeling career.

The US fencing community has benefited from racial diversity, starting with the breakthrough of Peter Westbrook, the son of an African American father and Japanese mother living in housing projects, who won bronze in men’s saber at the 1984 Olympics.

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Westbrook has since started a foundation, based in the fencing hotbed of New York, which has produced plenty of collegians and Olympians. One of those fencers, Ibtihaj Muhammad, is the first American to participate in the Olympics while wearing a hijab despite reporting some institutional resistance along the way.

“The Peter Westbrook Foundation does great work bringing fencing and the benefits of athletics to underserved communities, and athletes like Ibtihaj Muhammad, and many PWF athletes before her, are changing people’s conception of what fencers look like and who the sport includes,” says Ward, who competed at Duke a few years after Muhammad.

The diversity effort helped to invigorate USA Fencing and propel the country from also-ran status to perennial medal contender. Westbrook’s bronze in 1984 was the only medal US fencers earned between 1960, when Albie Axelrod won bronze, and 2004, when Mariel Zagunis won gold and Sada Jacobson won bronze in women’s saber. In 2008, Zagunis, Jacobson and Ward swept the women’s saber individual medals and took team bronze.

Also in 2008, the US men’s saber team broke through on the strength of a couple of Westbrook-educated fencers – Keeth Smart and Tim Morehouse. Smart’s sister, Erinn, took silver in team foil to round out the USA’s total of six medals in Beijing. Two more Westbrook fencers, both African American, medaled in 2016 – Muhammad in the team saber and Daryl Homer in the individual saber.

Morehouse went on to start his own outreach program, Fencing in the Schools. And Smart, who got the US team to the 2008 final with two last-ditch rallies, was impressed with Imboden’s gesture. “Race is a friend and very intelligent person who also happens to be an incredible athlete,” Smart says. “I am not surprised by his action as he is very thoughtful and caring based on his experiences growing up in Brooklyn.”

But Ward warns that the sport still has institutional barriers. “Diversity does not necessarily equal inclusion, and with an extremely high-cost and subjective sport controlled by a small set of coaches, there is much more work to be done to ensure new athletes are welcomed and supported,” Ward says.

