Soren Thompson

Soren Hunter Miles S Thompson (born May 5, 1981) is an American épée fencer, team world champion, and two-time Olympian. He represented the United States in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, where he reached the quarterfinals and came in 7th, the best US result in the event since 1956 and at the time the second-best US result of all time. He also represented the US in the 2012 Olympics in London. Thompson won a gold medal and world championship in the team épée event at the 2012 World Fencing Championships. He was inducted into the USA Fencing Hall of Fame in 2018, and the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2020.

Early and personal life Thompson was born in San Diego, California, and attended Torrey Pines High School, graduating in 1999. While attending Princeton, Thompson took a year off from school to focus on his training prior to the 2004 Athens Olympics. Thompson graduated with an A.B. in art and archaeology from Princeton University in 2005 after completing an 87-page-long senior thesis, titled "The San Diego School of Organic Architecture", under the supervision of Esther da Costa Meyer. Since 2015, Thompson has served as Vice President of Business Development of Daxor Corporation, a blood volume diagnostic company in New York City. He received an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School in 2016.

He was a resident of San Diego, and now resides in New York City.

Fencing career Thompson started fencing when he was 7 years old.

His other NCAA awards include First Team All-American in 2001–02 and 2005, and Honorary All-American in 2003, First Team All-Ivy in 2001–03 and 2005, and Academic All-Ivy in 2005.

In 2005, Princeton awarded Thompson the William Winston Roper Trophy, its highest honor for a male athlete.

Junior and Senior National Championships Thompson won the US Junior National Championship and the US Junior Olympics Championship in 1999 in épée.

He won individual gold medals in men's épée at both the 2011 US Fencing National Championships and the 2018 US Fencing National Championships.

Through 2021, he has won team gold medals in men's épée in the 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2019, and 2021 US Fencing National Championships with teams from the New York Athletic Club.

World Championships Thompson won the team bronze medal in the 1999 Junior World Fencing Championships.

He came in 26th in the 2006 World Fencing Championships in épée, in Turin, Italy. At the 2011 World Fencing Championships, Thompson made it as far as the Round of 16 (where he lost to 2011 world champion Paolo Pizzo of Italy) in Catania, Italy.

At the 2012 World Fencing Championships in Kyiv, Ukraine, in April 2012, Thompson won the gold medal for the team épée event, as part of the U.S. Men's Épée Team that won the first Senior World Championship fencing title for American men in history. The US team defeated six-time reigning World Champion France in the finals. In the Round of 16, he defeated Alfredo Rota of Italy, the No. 1 ranked épée fencer in the world and 2000 Olympics team épée gold medal winner, 15–13. He then lost 15–11 to the 2000 Olympic gold medalist Pavel Kolobkov of Russia, who went on to win the 2004 Olympic silver medal. Thompson became the first American to reach the men's épée quarterfinals in nearly 50 years.

He also took 5th place with the US épée squad in the team competition at the 2004 Olympics.

Thompson sought to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and was having the best season of his career. He suffered a serious injury, however, a fully torn off-the-bone right hamstring, before he was able to qualify. He therefore retired – temporarily, it turned out – from competitive fencing. No team men's épée event was held at the 2012 Olympics.

Senior North American Cup He is a senior North American Cup (NAC) champion. In 2010, Thompson won a bronze medal at the North American Cup A.

Miscellaneous Thompson appears in Impractical Jokers an American hidden camera-practical joke reality series, as a guest star.

Thompson was listed at # 61 in the book 100 of the Best Fencers of All Time (A&V, 2014).