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Eli Dershwitz, 2023 world champion in sabre, aims to make Olympic history

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

When the Paris Olympics begin, fans of fencing can root for something new. The sports world champion is an American who hopes to make history because no American man has ever won Olympic gold in sabre. Here's Craig LeMoult of member station GBH.

CRAIG LEMOULT, BYLINE: Eli Dershwitz and a teammate on the U.S. Olympic fencing team stand ready, their feet apart, knees bent and sabres pointed up.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Ready? Fence.

(SOUNDBITE OF SABRES CLASHING)

LEMOULT: They lunge at each other and begin an aggressive but strategic dance, alternating between attacking and retreating, trailing an electric cord. It only takes a few moments for a touch of the blade to register on their electrified jackets, scoring a point. And then they do it again.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Ready? Fence.

(SOUNDBITE OF SABRES CLASHING)

LEMOULT: In the other two fencing sports, foil and epee, you have to touch with the tip of the blade to score a point, Dershwitz explains.

ELI DERSHWITZ: In sabre, it's a slashing weapon. So you cut with the side of the blade, and anywhere from the waist up - chest, arms, mask - it's all valid target. So it's a lot easier to score a point. So it's very normal to have some welts on your back after practice.

LEMOULT: Dershwitz has been fencing since he was 9 years old, growing up in Sherborn, Mass. He followed his older brother into the sport.

DERSHWITZ: Yeah, I mean, we would hit each other with whatever we could from a young age. You know, like, who doesn't want to play a sport where you can just, you know, pick up a metal sabre and kind of, like, whack your friends and not get in trouble for it?

LEMOULT: But there's more to sabre than beating up your friends. There's a lot of strategy involved. It's not just about who gets the hit first. Often, both fencers hit simultaneously.

DERSHWITZ: And then whoever's the aggressor, whoever's either accelerating towards the opponent first - being more aggressive with the feet, with the arm - they get the benefit of the doubt. We call it priority.

LEMOULT: That interpretation can lead to some lively debates in practice.

DERSHWITZ: You're extending the arm to make counterattack as I make my attack, and I'm hitting your guard, and then I'm hitting you. And then you hit my guard and initiate the attack.

LEMOULT: At 28, Dershwitz is the old man at this practice in Manhattan. He went to his first Olympics in 2016 and lost in the first round. Back then, he had a very different attitude.

DERSHWITZ: My entire life just revolved around grinding and the belief system that if I was able to put my body and my mind through more pain and more hardship than, you know, my competitors that I would have an edge up.

LEMOULT: He says he's now more focused on making sure he's healthy.

DERSHWITZ: I think I still pride myself on being a very hard worker and very disciplined, but my goal is no longer to maximize pain and maximize misery in training.

LEMOULT: After that first Olympic disappointment, Dershwitz returned to Harvard, where he dominated collegiately. He represented the U.S. at the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2021. But once again, he was disappointed by the result.

DERSHWITZ: I knew the second I stepped off the strip in Tokyo that I didn't perform the way that I knew I was capable of. And I knew at that moment that I was going to do everything in my power to get back in 2024.

LEMOULT: As he worked toward that goal, Dershwitz did something last year that no American had ever done in a sabre world championships.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR: Well done to Eli Dershwitz of the United States of America. You are the world champion.

LEMOULT: The U.S. men's sabre coach Akhi Spencer-El says that world champion title puts Dershwitz in a different category going into this Olympics.

AKHI SPENCER-EL: The difference before is that he wasn't a favorite to medal - capable, yes - but now he's going in as a favorite. So I'm interested to see how he handles that pressure. I think he'll handle it well.

LEMOULT: Dershwitz says he's trying not to think about medaling. In fencing, there are just too many variables.

DERSHWITZ: Well, I can't control if the people around me have the best day of their life. I can't control if the people around me or my competitors are training super hard, not training super hard.

LEMOULT: What he can control, he says, is his own preparation. And he says that's all he's trying to focus on as he gets ready for the Paris Olympics.

For NPR News, I'm Craig LeMoult.

(SOUNDBITE OF YIN YIN'S "TAM TAM") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Craig produces sound-rich features and breaking news coverage for WGBH News in Boston. His features have run nationally on NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition, as well as on PRI's The World and Marketplace. Craig has won a number of national and regional awards for his reporting, including two national Edward R. Murrow awards in 2015, the national Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi award feature reporting in 2011, first place awards in 2012 and 2009 from the national Public Radio News Directors Inc. and second place in 2007 from the national Society of Environmental Journalists. Craig is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Tufts University.