US women sacrifice Hong Kong fencing title bid with Olympic gold already in their sights
Head coach Ralf Bissdorf’s inexperienced squad take team foil bronze at AsiaWorld-Expo, while Italy seal third consecutive World Cup title
The United States’ women are already preparing to defend their Olympic foil team gold in Los Angeles in 2028, head coach Ralf Bissdorf said on Sunday, after his young side finished third in the World Cup event in Hong Kong.
Defeat to France in the semi-finals kept the Americans outside the top two for the first time this season.
In contrast, Italy, silver medallists in Paris last summer, claimed their third consecutive team title in as many months, thrashing their European neighbours 45-22 to add victory at the AsiaWorld-Expo to ones in Mallorca and Busan.
Teenager Jaelyn Liu, who won individual gold in Hong Kong 12 months ago, Carolina Stutchbury, a 20-year-old British fencer who switched nationalities to chase her Olympics dream, and Lauren Scruggs, 22, did most of the Americans’ heavy lifting during Sunday’s team competition.
World No 1 Lee Kiefer, who took the individual title on Saturday, was not brought into the battle until the last round of the semi-final, when the US were already trailing France 30-25. Bronze came courtesy of a 44-40 win over Canada.
“We want to do better, but we’re going through a transition after the Paris Games,” Bissdorf said. “We have to replace Jackie Dubrovich, who retired, and we have to integrate young people into our squad. We have a lot of common history with the Olympic Games in Paris, where we won as a team.