USA Fencing announced its final five athletes to complete the Paris Olympic roster on Wednesday, bringing the total number of fencers to 20. The fourth-ranked fencers in men’s and women’s foil and sabre, as well as women’s épée, were named to the team. These athletes are eligible to be substituted into the team event only and include Miles Chamley-Watson (men’s foil), Filip Dolegiewicz (men’s sabre), Maia Weintraub (women’s foil), Maia Chamberlain (women’s sabre), and Kat Holmes (women’s épée). They join the first 15 fencers who previously qualified for both individual and team events, which is led by Tokyo Olympic women’s foil gold medalist Lee Kiefer and reigning men’s sabre world champion Eli Dershwitz.
Chamley-Watson, aged 34, becomes the oldest member of the team and returns after not qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics. The U.S. men’s foil team includes the top nine fencers in the world rankings with Nick Itkin at No. 1, Alexander Massialas at No. 5, and Gerek Meinhardt at No. 9. Chamley-Watson is ranked 21st in the world. Holmes, 30, qualified for her third Olympics after previously competing in the épée team events at Rio and Tokyo. Dolegiewicz won the 2022 NCAA title for Harvard, while Chamberlain and Weintraub, both NCAA champions, were Princeton teammates and first-time Olympians.
The Paris 2024 Olympics will not feature Mariel Zagunis, the 2004 and 2008 Olympic women’s sabre champion, for the first time since the 2000 Sydney Games
