Bulgaria Men’s Saber Grand Prix Results: Daryl Homer Top-16. Rest USA Team out in 64. Limbach Wins Competition

Day 2:
Daryl Homer in his first international competition makes top-16 defeating Romanian Hanceanu and Polish fencer Dominik.    He eventualy lost to Lopez of France to make the top-8.  

 Congratulations to Daryl on a great result!

Daryl's picture from GQ magazine last year

The rest of the American team didn’t fare as well.   They all lost in the top-64.  I’m slowly getting results and details from Jason Rogers as he texts me from Bulgaria. 

Semi-Finals Individual:
Limbach (GER) defeats Dumetrescu (ROM) in Semi-final
 Desci (Hun) defeats Montano (ITA)

Finals:
Limbach Defeats Desci for Gold

Day 1

I’m sitting this one out so my update comes via email from Jason Rogers.  

They have just finished day one.  Here are pool results and match-ups for the bracket of 64:

Ben Igoe won all bouts and fencing Nemscik HUN 

* rematch from Budapest when Ben prevailed

 

James Williams 5-1 fencing Beaudry CAN

 

Daryl Homer 5-1 fencing Hanceanu ROM

* Daryl’s first international world cup so great result so far

 

Mike Etropolski 2-4 and went through, fencing Tarantino Italy

 

Luther Clement 3-3, lost to Dolceanu BLR

Jason Rogers 3-3, lost to Kosikov of Russia 13-15

Olympian Tim Morehouse Makes Movie Debut! (Sort of)

 

"I don't go to Queens and you better pay me with cash!"

So it’s not exactly a starring role or even a speaking one, but playing “yellow cab driver #1” was still pretty sweet! 

For several hours I drove a yellow cab about 10 feet, picked up several “passengers” leaving a party, waited for them to say their lines and then drove them another 50 feet.   Along the way I learned how to turn the fare sign on and off and well…that’s really about it, but I did get some cool pictures!  

 

The film is an Indy titled “The Imperialists are Still Alive!” and its directed by Zeina Durra and produced by Vanessa Hope. 

Olympic Gold Medalist Ryan Lochte Struggles with Reporter at an Event

Olympic Gold Medalist Swimmer Ryan Lochte has been on a roll since Beijing .  He’s signed with the Ford Modeling Agency, had a photo spread  in GQ magazine and also enlisted PMK, the worlds largest PR firm, to promote his rising star. 

He’s truly been a model of capitalizing on Olympic success, but his recent appearance at Young Friends of Save Venice was a little less than stellar (at least that’s how they reported it) and a cautionary tale for making sure you know your event! (We could have easily done this ourselves)

Daily: Tell me about your personal relationship with Venice

Lochte: What?

 

Daily: Venice.

Lochte: Venice?

 

Daily: Aren’t you here for Save Venice?

Lochte: Um… my publicist… I’m here for Fashion Week.”

 

It’s all good however!  If the press is printing stories like this you know he is doing something right!

Ryan Lochte in December GQ Magazine

“Sync or Swim” Documentary on 2004 Olympic Syncro Team Swims!

The intense daily training, three nerve-wracking Olympic qualifying competitions, a teammate facing manslaughter charges, an athlete just missing her Olympic dream and ultimately Olympic triumph are just some of the highlights of “Sync or Swim” a documentary film about the 2004 Olympic Synchronized Swimming Team.     

Synchronized Swimming like fencing and other emerging Olympic sports are often overlooked in the US market and this film really brings home how many unheralded and unknown inspirational stories can be found in our Olympians and Olympic teams.   

 

Director Cheryl Furjanic spent many months with the team beginning with the duet Olympic trials and gives a very insightful look at this sport and its athletes.    The sacrifices they all make, one of them foregoing a full-scholarship to Stanford to pursue her dreams, others living with very little money while they train full-time.    

(lft to rt.) Olympic Bronze Medalist Lauren McFall, Becky Tomsic, her husband and director Cheryl Furjanic take questions during Q&A session after Moma screening

The film covers the whole team, but focuses on three athletes: Russian born Anna Kozlova who has finished 4^th at 2 Olympics and is pursuing her last chance at an Olympic Medal, Becky Tomsic who qualified for 2000, but then missed the games because of an injury and Andrea Nott, pursuing her first Olympic team.

 

If you want a great inside look at what it takes to be an Olympian, the inside scoop on this non-mainstream sport and to be inspired by some amazing women then this documentary is for you!   

 

You can find out where it’s playing at: http://synchromovie.tumblr.com/

Miss New York Challenges NY Olympians Tim and Jason’s Amazing Race Abilities

Following the recent blog entry  we made about applying to the Amazing Race Season 15, I received this post  to my facebook wall from Miss New York Leigh-Taylor Smith:

Tim. I hope you know I’m applying alongside another Miss America contestant. Want to reconsider your app? We don’t want to embarrass you.

 

The following day:

All I can think is the look on your faces when we kick your tails

The Very Dangerous Miss New York Leigh-Taylor Smith

All I can say to little Miss New York is that: It’s on Like Donkey Kong!  This is all assuming that any of us actually make it on the show!

If not, we’ll just have to settle this budding rivalry the old fashion way by taking it to the streets of New York with swords!!   I don’t think we’d have too much of an advantage? 

I guess we could have a talent competition, but I don’t think anyone wants to hear me belting out Every Rose Has Its Thorn with Jason on the guitar.  Swimsuit contest maybe? I’m thinking we’d lose that one also.   She did win that portion of the Miss America contest.

To be continued…

A Night out with Tim and Jason: Gossip Girls, Ivanka Trump, Leigh-Taylor Smith, Lord Scott Buccheit, Adeel Chaduhry and the Charity Gala for Seeds of Peace

Jason and I love supporting great causes and so we were very excited to attend the Seeds of Peace charity event last week. 

 

Seeds of Peace was founded in 1993 by journalist John Wallach, and is dedicated to empowering young leaders from regions of conflict with the leadership skills required to advance reconciliation and coexistence. The Organization basically hosts programs where Palestinians, Israelis, Egyptians and other teenagers from the Middle East, work together with the goal of realizing how much they have in common. The hope being, that as they mature into adulthood and take leadership positions they will be more empathetic in their dealings with others in their region.

 

Along with our friend Sir Scott Buccheit III (rumored to be the descendant of Welsh Royalty), Miss New York Leigh-Taylor Smith (we’ll get to more on her in an upcoming post) and John de Triquet (chaperon extraordinaire for Miss NY) , we braved the cold of this NYC winter and headed to Cipriani Wall Street where the event was being held.  

 

We were offering our fencing clinic to the live auction so we spent much of the night feeling nervous about being on stage and the prospect of it not selling! (It did and raise $1000 for the cause! Yay!) The food was amazing and for once we actually eat at an event (usually unheard of!) because who can pass up Cipriani food?

 

In attendance at the event were Amanda Setton, Nicole Fiscella, Yin Chang and Dreama Walker  of the show Gossip Girls, (which Jason watches religiously on fencing trips) and whom we have had the pleasure of hanging with at several events in NYC; They are definitely a very nice bunch of people!   Nicole is also friends with Olympic fencer Jon Tiomkin and Amanda knows one of my classmates from my high school, Dov Barnett, who was also in attendance, so it’s truly a small world!

Scott and Miss New York Leigh-Taylor

Ivanka Trump hosted and was extremely gracious when we met her.   Pakistani Music Star Adeel Chaduhry performed and had the place rocking!!  Kudos to Michael Cerbelli of Total Entertainment who did a great job producing the event.

 

Read Scott’s Column on the event:

http://guestofaguest.com/nyc-events/scott-does-the-seeds-of-peace-event-with-ivanka-trump-our-favorite-olympic-fencers-and-some-gossip-girls/

Fencing is a Sexy Sport Part II: Article Translation Update

James Williams has started translating the XXL  magazine article on the Ukrainian fencing team, but he has hit a snag.

Despite Eric Edew’s comments on fencing.net that he doesn’t possess the skills .  James wants to assure everyone that his Russian is fully fluent thanks to several years of coursework, several trips to Moscow and many fencing lessons taken in Russian from his coach Yury and that translating it has not been the reason for the hold up. 

So, what’s the issue you ask?

From James:

Can’t find a full length article.  here’s what i got here:

http://www.xxl.ua/xxl-cover-girls/7828

(Article called:  Golden Girls”

“The ability to handle the cold steel of a weapon is usually punished by law.  These girls, however, instead of a sentence, received universal recognition of their worth as the whole world applauded them.  The Ukrainian women’s national fencing team let XXL in on their little secret…”

 

i can’t find the body of that article anywhere, but if someone sends it to me I will finish translating it.

 

So there you go…if anyone can track down the article for us, James will finish the job of translating. 

Jason Rogers Begins Lessons with Yury Gelman

It’s always news when a top athlete begins working with a new coach and so with Jason’s approval we’re breaking the story here!  This past week, Jason started taking lessons from 3-Time Olympic coach Yury Gelman. 

 

From the mouth of Jason Rogers:

 

Lasy year, I moved from Los Angeles to New York City to join and train with the strong group of fencers on the East Coast.  

During that time I would travel back and forth to take lessons with my Coach and Mentor Daniel Costin while training for Beijing.   After the Olympics, I decided to remain and live in New York City and so for logistical reasons, I’ve begun working with Yury because continuing to travel back and forth to LA has become more and more difficult as I also try to build a career.    

Daniel has and will continue to play a huge role in my life and fencing career. I wouldn’t be where I am without him and I thank him greatly.    I also think Yury will be a great asset to me and he has already coached me for many years as the national coach at worlds and the Olympics so he is very familiar with my fencing. 

I look forward to taking lessons from him.

Thanks Jason and there you have it!

Jason working with Yury during his first lesson

 

 

 

 

 

Boys Town Goes Fencing!

Sunday evening we got the chance to teach a great bunch of kids to fence from the Boys Town New York organization!   It’s always fun to show new people our sport and especially fun with people who might not normally get exposed to it.

The Boys Town organization provides short-term emergency residential care for assessment and crisis stabilization for abused, neglected, runaway youth or youth who have been in trouble due to delinquent activities. 

Priscilla, Juanique, Maureen, Jessica, Irvin, Cedric, Donell, Okpala and Anthony are really inspirations and with the help of Boys Town they are turning around their lives.  It was honor to get to meet and work with them!
The clinic was purchsed by Dave Shaffer at the Boys Town Building Hope Gala for $10,000 dollars and gifted by him to the students of Boys Town.    A very special thank you to him for supporting Boys Town!

 

To learn more or support Boys Town: www.boystownnewyork.org

Olympians Tim and Jason on Amazing Race??? We’re Going for it!

The 3-minute video is filmed, the forms are filled out and tomorrow Jason and I are putting our application for the Amazing Race Season 15 in the mail! We figured, worth a try!  If we make the show and win that million dollars that would certainly go a along way towards funding this Olympic quadrenial! 

In a way, a fencing season is like a season of the amazing race…you travel to many different places where you have to compete while facing all kinds of weird  and unexpected challenges.    We’ve faced trips to Iran, Algeria, Cuba, and Senegal along with such lovely events as having stuff stolen from our bags (in a South American country which shall remain nameless), lost passports, crazy taxi drivers, staying in an abandoned hotel in Germany in Winter with no heat…you get the idea!

So, we’ll see what happens. The first round interviews are in March so we’ll find out in a few weeks if we make the first cut!     I’ll keep you posted!