Congratulations 2-Time Olympic Fencing Champion Mariel Zagunis!

Mariel Zagunis recieves the award in Italy. (Jason Rogers Photographer)

Our very own US Olympic Champion Mariel Zagunis captured one of the most prestigous fencing awards in the world!  She is the first American to ever recieve the “Challenge Chevalier Feyerick” award and its well deserved coming off her world championship and Olympic gold in Beijing over the past 2 seasons.

Here is how fencing.net covered it:
2004 and 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist Mariel Zagunis was awarded the prestigious “Challenge Chevalier Feyerick” at the FIE Congress held November 21st and 22nd 2009. (Click Here for More Story!)

Olympian and Model Tim Morehouse Aims to Put Fencing on the Map with Polo Player and Ralph Lauren Model Nacho Figueras as a Role Model

Apparently this modeling thing has some legs…

Never in my life, especially while working at Teach For America teaching 7th grade Social Studies did I think I’d be a Wilhelmina Model doing photo shoots for fashion brands and magazines, but since the Beijing Olympics as we’ve tried to promote fencing it seems like the fashion world has really been a great ally.  Who knew?

The past two weeks we’ve been doing  a number of exciting shoots and I guess we’ll see how far this will go!  The NY Post’s Page 6. The Huffington Post and Vanity Fair can’t be wrong, right? They’ll all discussed our modeling adventures…

I love the idea of promoting fencing in a similar manner to what Nacho Figueras the Polo player has done, but to even a greater level since our sport is much more accessible…(we don’t need horses and fields to play!)

Check out this article on him from the New York Times on him:”Putting Glamour on Horseback“.  The gist, he’s a Polo player, Ralph Lauren model and does an amazing job promoting his sport and finding it a unique niche for sponsors.  

Nacho Figueras

My vision for fencing’s niche in our modern-day society is  that  it can be both unique social gathering and sporting event for adults and a learning tool and participation sport for children.   

It’s an expanded vision built on what Nacho has done with Polo matches in the Hamptons except we can do these in the major cities like NYC and LA and we also can teach tons of children to do it in schools and clubs.   

 The sport would be on display in an elegant manner both in regards to where its taking place and how the fencers and crowd interact and dress.   Think old school chivalry and honor meets modern-day fashion and technology.   It would be a re-branded modern version involving fencing’s spectacular history as a sport of Kings and Nobility with its new benefits as a safe (no one gets stabbed anymore!) sport of  strategy and athleticism for people to do to be healthy at all ages.

The Italian Fencing Association is doing this the best right now.   See my “Fencing Done Right…” article for some pictures of what fencing could be.  

 Plus, wouldn’t it be cool to have people settling their differences again with a duel?

Stay tuned!

Olympian and Wilhelmina Model Tim Morehouse Aims to Put Fencing on the Map with Polo Player and Ralph Lauren Model Nacho Figueras as a Role-Model

Apparently this modeling thing has some legs…

Never in my life, especially while working at Teach For America teaching 7th grade Social Studies did I think I’d be a Wilhelmina Model doing photo shoots for fashion brands and magazines, but since the Beijing Olympics as we’ve tried to promote fencing it seems like the fashion world has really been a great ally.  Who knew?

The past two weeks I’ve been doing  a number of exciting shoots and I guess we’ll see how far this will go!  The NY Post’s Page 6. The Huffington Post and Vanity Fair can’t be wrong, right? They’ll all discussed our modeling adventures…

I love the idea of promoting fencing in a similar manner to what Nacho Figueras the Polo player has done, but to even a greater level since our sport is much more accessible…(we don’t need horses and fields to play!)

Check out this article on him from the New York Times on him:”Putting Glamour on Horseback“.  The gist, he’s a Polo player, Ralph Lauren model and does an amazing job promoting his sport and finding it a unique niche for sponsors.  

Nacho Figueras

My vision for fencing’s niche in our modern-day society is  that  it can be both unique social gathering and sporting event for adults and a learning tool and participation sport for children.  

It’s an expanded vision built on what Nacho has done with Polo matches in the Hamptons except we can do these in the major cities like NYC and LA and we also can teach tons of children to do it in schools and clubs.   

The sport would be on display in an elegant manner both in regards to where its taking place and how the fencers and crowd interact and dress.   Think old school chivalry and honor meets modern-day fashion and technology.   It would be a re-branded modern version involving fencing’s spectacular history as a sport of Kings and Nobility with its new benefits as a safe (no one gets stabbed anymore!) sport of  strategy and athleticism for people to do to be healthy at all ages.

The Italian Fencing Association is doing this the best right now.   See my “Fencing Done Right…” article for some pictures of what fencing could be.  

Plus, wouldn’t it be cool to have people settling their differences again with a duel?

Stay tuned!

30,000 Reasons to be Angry about the Coverage of Tiger Woods

The war and the issues our country is most focused on fighting right now isn’t Afghanistan…it’s the ratings war (for television networks) and what will entertain/distract me most (for our society as a whole) ….

So while 30,0000 American soldiers will soon be heading to Afghanistan to put their lives on the line, the big issue of the day is Tiger Woods and the burning questions about his affairs, was he or wasn’t he beaten by his wife, is he handling the PR well, what should he do next and will he or won’t he recover his image.

Seriously? You can’t escape it.  

I don’t really know where the line should have been drawn or even how we’ve gotten to this place, but it’s official, (and has been so for a while) the news in our country is almost completely gossip and personal opinion.  Basically whatever it takes to achieve ratings, which in the case of our society seems to be everything and anything salacious!

Is the issue a) A powerful demonstration of what happens when goals aren’t aligned to ethics and morals code and how far our code has fallen in this country?

Or…

B)  Is all this stuff really just some weird societal coping mechanism where we’re trying to distract ourselves from our problems like they don’t exist in hopes they’ll just fix themselves?

Either way, I’m fighting mad about this issue, our educational crisis, the economy, the weak dollar, the cost of health care…

Oh wait, what’s that? Another girl just said she slept with Tiger! She has a recorded message too! Oh wow…wait…war…hmm…was I talking about something? Can’t remember. Oh well.  Back to Tiger! 

But seriously, how do we break this cycle and really face what’s important? 30,000 soldiers plus all those already serving our country deserve this much from us…