Mariel Zagunis

Biography Zagunis' parents, Robert and Cathy (née Menges) Zagunis, were collegiate rowers at Oregon State University and Connecticut College, respectively. They both competed with the U.S. rowing team at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Her older brother Marten and younger brother Merrick also fence sabre. She grew up in Oregon and attended Valley Catholic from kindergarten to 12th grade, and the University of Notre Dame where she majored in anthropology.

Zagunis is of Lithuanian descent on her paternal side and was raised in the Catholic faith.

Early career

Zagunis was the first American fencer to hold the Jr. World Cup Champion title (2002), and she did so three years in a row (2002, 2003, 2004). She is the youngest fencer ever to win the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime (FIE) World Championship gold, and the youngest fencer to win three FIE medals in one season. Zagunis won the FIE over-all medal three years in a row. She was the first fencer in the history of the sport to hold more than two World Champion titles in one season (2001: Cadet Jr. and Jr. Team titles). She entered the University of Notre Dame in 2004 on an athletic scholarship.

In October 2005, Zagunis won her seventh World Champion title at the Leipzig, Germany World Championships, in the women's team event. A year later at the 2006 World Fencing Championships she won the silver, after losing the final to Rebecca Ward. She is the second U.S. fencer in history to have won the World Cup total-points Title from the FIE.

In 2009 Zagunis captured the last individual World title to have eluded her when she won the World Championships in Antalya, Turkey, defeating Ukrainian Olga Kharlan 15–6 in the final. She repeated as World Champion one year later, again winning the individual sabre title, defeating the Ukraine's Olga Khomrova 15–11 in the final.

2004 Athens Olympics

The Women's Sabre event was being contested for the first time at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Zagunis did not directly qualify to fence in the tournament. However, Nigeria decided not to send their qualifying fencer to the tournament, and as the next highest seeded fencer in the world, Zagunis was selected to represent the United States at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

She received one of eight byes offered in the first round, entering the tournament in the Round of 16, where she defeated Japanese fencer Madoka Hisagae, 15–13. In the quarterfinals, she defeated Elena Jemayeva of Azerbaijan, 15–11. In the semifinals, Zagunis clinched at least a silver medal by defeating Romania's Cătălina Gheorghițoaia, 15–10.

Zagunis faced Chinese fencer Xue Tan in the finals, defeating her 15–9 and becoming the first American to win an Olympic fencing gold medal in 100 years. Previously the only American Olympic fencing gold medalist was Albertson Van Zo Post. In the 1904 Summer Olympics he had been the gold medalist in the individual singlestick event and in the team foil event, where he had joined two Cuban fencers to make up a combined Cuba/U.S. team.

Because fellow American Sada Jacobson had become the first U.S. woman to be ranked #1 in the world in women's sabre (in 2003), she was considered a favorite. Zagunis' win as the underdog surprised the elite in the fencing world. (Jacobson earned the bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics.)

2008 Beijing Olympics

Individual event

Zagunis entered the 2008 Summer Olympics seeded sixth. Zagunis teamed up with Jacobson and Ward to defeat the South African team in the quarterfinals, 45–8.

In the semifinals, they fenced the team from Ukraine. The Ukrainian side, seeded fifth in the tournament, defeated the U.S. team 45–39, denying them a gold medal, and placing them in the bronze medal bout against France. The U.S. team rebounded from their semifinal loss by defeating the French team 45–38 for the bronze medal.

2012 London Olympics

On July 25, 2012, Zagunis was elected by Team USA to be the national flag bearer in the Summer Olympics Parade of Nations.

Zagunis failed to win a medal at these games. She lost to South Korea's Kim Ji-yeon, 15–13; then lost to Ukraine's Olga Kharlan in the bronze medal match, 15–10.

2020 Tokyo Olympics (in 2021) She was one of three female saber fencers to represent the United States in fencing at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo in 2021. Zagunis entered the 2021 Summer Olympics seeded tenth. She jumped out to a 7 to 0 lead in her round of 32 match against Canadian Gabriella Page (seeded 23) and scored the last five touches to win 15–3. She then defeated Korea's Ji-yeon Kim (seeded 7) 15–12 in the Round of 16. In her quarterfinal match, she fell to two-time champion Sofya Velikaya (seeded 1) of the Russian Olympic Committee, 15–8, as the Russian reeled off 7 straight points to advance to the semifinals.

Outside the fencing arena On March 3, 2017, Zagunis was announced as one of 16 celebrities participating in a cooking competition on the Food Network TV series Chopped. She was featured in the "Star Power: Culinary Muscle" episode, alongside former NFL player LaMarr Woodley, former gold medalist figure skater Dorothy Hamill, and current female UFC fighter Paige VanZant. Zagunis was the second contestant eliminated from the competition in her heat.