Women's Individual Epee

It's worth noting two things to begin. First, epee is a very deliberate weapon. Of the three weapons, it is the one that most embodies the idea of "physical chess." There's a rule in place that says that after a certain amount of time -- about a minute -- in a period has elapsed with nothing happening (no touches, in the case of epee), then the time will automatically reset to the beginning of the next period, with no break. Second, there is no right of way in epee. This means that if both fencers' lights go off in epee, both fencers are awarded a point. The only exception is in extra time. The point of extra time is to break a tie, so a double touch in extra time is just called simultaneous, nothing done.

Three American women competed in epee. Susie Scanlan lost 13-15 in the round of 64. Maya Lawrence and Courtney Hurley had round of 64 byes, so their first bouts were in the round of 32.

I watched Courtney Hurley's bout against Laura Flessel-Colovic of France, who was their flag bearer. Courtney Hurley held her epee at a higher angle than most people. Laura feinted a lot of attacks. First touch was simultaneous. Second touch both missed first intention, Courtney got second. Third touch was simultaneous. Laura is left-handed. Courtney didn't stay very low -- Laura's knees were much more bent. Next touch was simultaneous, then Courtney attacked and landed on the upper arm or shoulder. 5-3. Laura landed a hit -- looked like it was going to the arm then went lower. Simultaneous on the next one (Laura's attack, Courtney's counter). Next point was Courtney's attack, Laura's counter. 6-7 Courtney ahead. Laura tied it with five seconds left in the period with a touch to the upper inner quadrant of Courtney's torso.
Courtney was bouncy. Laura stayed lower and more turned in, so even when she bounced, it didn't look as bouncy. Laura got the first touch of the period. Her ninth touch came on a fleche. Courtney leaned and ducked a little, and Laura fleched and hit Courtney on the back. Next was simultaneous. Laura led 10-8. It was pretty fast moving, for epee. Attack by Laura was no, and then an attack by Courtney landed. Next touch went to Laura, near the wrist. Then Laura fleched, but the fleche didn't land, and Courtney got the touch. Simultaneous. 11-12, Laura ahead. Laura, on one of the attacks that looks like it'll just be a feint, hit the inner side of Courtney's torso. Courtney got the next touch. 12-13, Laura ahead. Laura lunged in and got a touch to Courtney's leg (at least second intention, maybe third,but all to the leg). And Laura won on another low touch, 15-12.

Men's Individual Sabre

Three Americans were competing in the men's sabre competition:  Daryl Homer, Timothy Morehouse, and James Williams. All three men had byes in the round of 64. Tim defeated Veniamin Reshetnikov of Russia 15-6, which wasn't expected at all. Daryl Homer was expected to win and did, 15-11. James Williams was defeated by Nikolay Kovalev, which was also expected.

Timothy Morehouse and Daryl Homer then won narrowly in the Round of 16. Tim defeated Dmitri Lapkes 15-13. Daryl defeated the Russian Yakimenko, one of the top two in the world, 15 points to 14. Both Tim and Daryl, though, lost in the quarters. Tim lost to Italy's Diego Occhiuzzi, 9-15. Daryl was defeated 15-13 by Rares Dumitrescu of Romania. Also in the quarterfinals, Nikolay Kovalev of Russia defeated the top seed, Nicolas Limbach of Germany, 15-12.

The two semifinals were Diego Occhiuzzi versus Rares Dumitrescu and Aron Szilagyi and Nikolay Kovalev. I missed the Szilagyi-Kovalev bout, but Szilagyi won, 15-7.

After one period, the Dumitrescu-Occhiuzzi score was 5-8. At the beginning of the Dumitrescu-Occhiuzzi second period, in seven seconds of fencing time, went from 5-8 to 7-11.
Once it was 14-9, both were just going in, so quickly, not doing much complicated -- one trying to finish and one trying to save. Dumitrescu got a point the third time they did that. On the next touch, Occhiuzzi was sure he'd won, it seemed, but when it was ruled simultaneous he asked for a new sabre. Dumitrescu clearly got the next point. Occhiuzzi won on the next point, 15-11.

In the bronze medal match, Kovalev was up 4-0, but then Dumitrescu came back and scored 3 points in a row. After twenty seconds of fencing time, it was 6-3, Kovalev.  At period, Kovalev led 8-3. (Note that they weren't even thirty seconds of fencing time in when they went to the next period.)
Kovalev opened the second period by scoring two points in one second. Dumitrescu then scored three points in the next five seconds. Nine seconds into the second period, the score was 11-8, Kovalev.
Kovalev switched sabres when the score was 14-9. Dumitrescu got the next point. Kovalev won on a counter parry riposte, 15-10, thus earning the bronze medal.

The final was fifth seeded Aron Szilagyi of Hungary versus fourteenth seeded Occhiuzzi of Italy. Not-really-related note: In the few bouts of sabre I watched, I was at least three instances of the equivalent of a false start -- someone going before "allez." Szilagyi was rolling at the beginning. First four points were all his, in five seconds of fencing time. For his fifth point, he really pulled Occhiuzzi, and then suddenly attacked, changing direction with little warning. It was very well done.
Twelve seconds into the period, Szilagyi was up 7-0. It was going to take a lot for Occhiuzzi to even make this close. He did get his first point then, so the score was 1-7. Then Szilagyi committed a "false start." Szilagyi then got a point, so the score was 8-1, and that was the end of the first period.
Occhiuzzi got the first two points of the second period. It looked like Szilagyi tried to pull Occhiuzzi again, but Occhiuzzi scored this time. 3-8. Occhiuzzi started to come back a bit. 5-9. After Szilagyi went up 10-5 again, Occhiuzzi pushed and got a point. 6-10. After a few more hits, Szilagyi was up 14-7. Occhiuzzi pushed for the next point and the score was 8-14, but it looked like he hurt his foot or lower leg. Once he got up and walked back to his end of the piste, he looked okay. Far onto his end of the piste, Szilagyi attacked, and his attack landed. Aron Szilagyi of Hungary is the men's sabre Olympic champion.

It's worth noting that seeds don't align perfectly with world rankings. Seeds are drawn, but a higher ranked fencer is more likely to have a better seed.  Still, these medalists were not expected -- Nicolas Limbach of Germany, Alexey Yakimenko of Russia, or Gu Bongil of South Korea were expected.

The Federation Internationale d'Escrime (FIE) rankings have already been updated. Nicolas Limbach is first and Alexey Yakimenko is second (also top two pre-Olympics), but Aron Szilagyi is now third. Gu Bongil is fourth, Dumitrescu is fifth, Kovalev is sixth, and Occhiuzzi is seventh. Daryl Homer has moved up to 12th.

Women's Olympic Foil

Four years ago, I was very active on the National Novel Writing Month Young Writers' Program (NaNo YWP) forums, and each day, I posted an overview of what had occurred in the fencing at the Olympics.

I decided to continue writing summaries, but I'll post them here, instead.

In the round of 32: Lee Kiefer v. Monica Peterson, American v. Canadian. Lee dominated the beginning of the first period, and then Monica came back and was within a point of Lee, who then changed foils and started scoring again. The second period was mostly Lee -- Monica got a few touches, including a couple after Lee was at 14 points, but Lee was in control.

Both women are five foot four, but Lee has longer legs. Sometimes she sits really low and deep, but other times she's pretty high up -- higher than Monica, who also leans a little. Lots of off-targets and in-fighting in this bout, and it moved pretty quickly. They didn't go up and down the piste a lot. Their first intentions came early, and usually either a first or second intention hit or was off-target.

So Lee Kiefer is the only American female foilist to advance past the Round of 32. It's disappointing for Nzingha Prescod and Nicole Ross; Zingy especially was expected to do better than she did.

Other important results: Elisa di Francisca rolled over Mona Shaito. The first period was reasonable (6 to 2), but in the second period Elisa scored 9 points and shut out Mona. Valentina Vezzali, defending gold medalist, won 14 to 8.

Lee's next bout is in the second half of the Round of 16 against Gil Ok Jung, who beat Aida Shanaeva 15 to 14 in the Round of 32. In the first half, though, is #1 in the world, Hyun Hee Nam of S. Korea, against Aida Mohamed, who defeated Nzingha Prescod in the Round of 32. I saw a bit of Carolin Golubytskyi (of Germany)'s previous match - she did very well, and has a non-bouncy style I like - but in this round she's matched up against Elisa di Francisca, who looked positively dominant.

So, in the round of 16 are three French, three Italians, two Japanese, two South Koreans, one Russian, one German, one American, one Chinese, one Hungarian, and one Tunisian.

The only competitors who rolled like Elisa di Francisca in the round of 32 were Astrid Guyart of France (won 15-2) and Arianna Errigo of Italy (won 15-4). Neither Nam nor Vezzali, the favorites, were as dominant. Astrid faces Ines Boubakri of Tunisia, who defeated Nicole Ross. Arianna Errigo faces Kamilia Gafurzianova, who defeated Martyna Synoradzka15-8.

Hyun Hee Nam was up 3-1 against Aida Mohamed at the end of the first period. They're moving up and down the piste a lot, and lots of off-target when they do manage to attack. Nam can be really bouncy at times. 4-4 at the second break. Nam needed to stop missing her ripostes, and  she to be careful when the taller Aida was in distance but Nam wasn't.

At the end of the third period it was 6-6, so extra time. Nam thought she won on a parry riposte, but the director called off-target. After a few minutes, the result was no point and a yellow card for Nam. On the next point, though, she got the touch and won.

In the other bouts. Arianna won 15-7. Astrid lost 10-15. Chieko Sugawara of Japan beat Corinne Maitrejean of France 15-9.

Now Lee Kiefer v. Gil Ok Jung. They were moving a lot. At the first break, Lee was up 4-2, and there had been some infighting near the end of the period. Lee was moving a lot better than she showed against Monica. The infighting increased dramatically, as did the off targets. Jung came on strong at the end of the second period. Tied 11-11 with 1:42 left in the third period.  Lee was moving better again. It was close at the end, with Lee up 14-13, and they had to check the last touch on video, but Lee won, 15-13.

Carolin Golubytskyi gave Elisa di Francisca some trouble in the first two periods of their Round of 16 bout. It was 9-8 Elisa with two minutes left in the third period. Elisa is tall, but she was sitting pretty deeply in her en garde. The last two minutes were almost all Elisa. She won 15-9.

Ikehata won 15-11. Valentina Vezzali won 15-6, so that sounds like it was pretty easy for Valentina.

In the quarters, Ines Boubakri against Valentina, Lee against Arianna, Chieko Sugawara against Elisa, and Ikehata v. Nam.

So, Lee and Arianna. Arianna scored the first two touches, but Lee responded with two touches on ripostes. Lee was sitting pretty far down in her en garde this match. Arianna was leaning a lot. Lee’s back foot was a lot more turned out than Arianna’s – actually, maybe Arianna’s is turned in more than normal – and Lee’s en garde was pretty wide. Lee got a point on an attack and then on a counter riposte. They were barely using any time because they're just coming in. Arianna got a couple of touches with attacks in preparation on Lee, and Arianna led 13-8. The final score was 15-10, Arianna Errigo winning.

Elisa definitely used her reach against Sugawara. Elisa, 15-9. Nam won 15-6. Boubakri and Valentina were tied 7-7, in extra time, and Valentina won. So three Italians and Nam in the semis.

Nam v. Elisa. Elisa towers over Nam. Both fencers stayed really low and had wide en garde positions. The crowd was very much rooting for Elisa. They weren't moving much, small steps, rocking back and forth. Elisa was trying to hit Nam's blade, but Nam was keeping it up off target. Nam is a lefty, but it wasn’t really helping her. A lot of her hits were off-target, closer to Elisa's arm. It was 2-2 at the end of the first period. Nam got some good touches on Elisa’s upper outside quadrant. At the end of the second period, the score was 5-5. Nam was bouncing off and on throughout the bout, but she was really bouncy at the beginning of the third period. Both fencers were moving their blades, but Nam was using a huge vertical range, and Elisa was mostly keeping hers on target. The beginning of the third period was all Nam, and she was up 9-5. Elisa, however, came back, and the crowd was supporting her very vocally (singing, clapping, chanting).  The third period ended with the score tied 10-10, so extra time. Eight seconds into extra time, Elisa’s attack landed, and she won, advancing to the final.

Valentina and Arianna. Valentina won the first three points. Arianna started attacking, then – she seems more comfortable on offense – and so she lead 6-5. Arianna kept her foil at a higher angle in en garde than did Valentina. They started moving more. Lots of off-targest by Arianna. Arianna did a good job landing her ripostes. On the rare occasion that Arianna missed a riposte, Valentina did a good job of landing a remise. Quick touches, using very little time. The end of the first period, and the score was 12-9, Arianna. Valentina fought back a little at the end, but Arianna won, 15-12.

So it was Nam and Vezzali in the bronze medal bout. Vezzali bent her back leg a lot more than did Nam. They were both down really low, and there was a lot of  blade contact. They barely move, and then one of them attacks really suddenly. At the end of the first period, it was 2-2. In the early second period, they kept getting really close to each other and then passing each other, causing halts. It was 6-4 Valentina at break. Valentina got a yellow card, but I didn’t see why. Nam got lots of touches quickly, and it was 10-6 Nam. Valentina, though, came back, and with 9 seconds left in the third period, she was down 10-12. In the last nine seconds, she got two touches, so they went into extra time tied 12-12. Neither fencer attacked early in the extra time, but eventually Valentina attacked and got the touch, securing an Italian sweep of the medals.

And the final!

Arianna v. Elisa. The tall Italian bout.

They both geot really low occasionally, but they didn't stay low much. Arianna is also a lefty. How did I not catch that? The first two touches were Elisa's. They were both moving their blades a lot. Their styles seemed so similar except that their en garde was somewhat different. At period it was 3-2 Elisa. They were both beating the other's blade. Lots of off target, lots of attacking without much warning (my coach called that exploding). Arianna made some mistakes – there was one touch where she just ran at Elisa. It looked like she was going to fleche, but she never actually did. They were doing a sort of flow more than anyone else I watched bout today. Not the very set flow I learned, but a flow, just going with each other. It was 7-7 after break. Arianna got ahead 10-8, but Elisa came back and tied it 11-11. This was still the score at the end of the third period. Early on in extra time, Elisa attacked, and her attack landed. Elisa di Francisca is the gold medalist.

Balance and Swing

Before, the room is never crowded. Most people hang to the sides, waiting, sitting, drinking water, talking. The band is on the stage, but they're quiet.

Already, though, it's clear that something is going to need lots of space.
Why else would the center of the room be completely clear?

It's a church, a school, a library -- anywhere with a large, open room. Usually old. Often poorly lit.

But once the music starts, none of that matters, because it's a contra dance.

A mixer comes first, to teach the basics. Everyone stands in a circle and holds hands with their neighbors. Maybe everyone will walk to the center of the circle and then back out. Maybe there will be a circle right and then a circle left, or the other way around. But there is movement through the circle. One does not stay between the same two people. Pass by shoulders, pull through, a la main -- there are lots of ways to rotate.
And then there is the balance and swing.

A balance. The pair takes hands. Both step in, bounce, then step out and bounce. On the step out, it's common for the lady's left hand and the man's right hand to release. This allows them to pull farther apart, which isn't important for the balance but is important for the swing.

A swing. There are many ways to swing, but really, it's just the pair spinning in a circle.
Usually, the lady's left hand is on the man's right shoulder, the man's right hand is on the lady's back, and then they hold hands on the lady's right. The two can either walk around each other (a walking swing), or they can each leave one foot in the center and pivot around it (a buzz step). Buzz step swings are usually much faster.

Some people don't think faster swings are necessarily more fun.

I'm not one of those people.

The balance and swing is the basic step of contra, and practicing it is truly the point of the beginning mixer.

After the mixer, the dances begin. Find a partner, stand in a set -- two long lines, standing across from your partner. Partners move up and down the set together, and as the dance repeats, over and over the partners find each other for a balance and swing.

The fiddle, the caller, the colorful spinning skirts, the loud stomp on a "long lines!", the old man in a kilt.

Two women pull past each other in a ladies' chain, and the men guide them around in a half circle, a courtesy turn -- and maybe they add a twirl or few.
 I live for the twirls in a courtesy turn, even if life isn't quite contra dance.

There's a break in the middle, because contras are not short affairs. They usually last at least two and a half hours, and more often at least three.
Before the break, and at the very end of the dance, there is a waltz.

The waltz calms and lingers, so different in style, movement, music from the contras, but a contra without an ending waltz feels incomplete.

Three years ago today, my first contra dance ended with a waltz, and I had learned to balance and swing.