US Wins Gold Fencing Medal

 
By Parke Brewer¹

Women's fencing became an Olympic sport in 1924 and after 80 long years the United States finally has its first medals in the event.

Both came in women's saber, which was added to the Olympic program for the 2004 games.

Saber is the fastest of fencing's three weapons. The target area is the entire body above the bend in the hips², including the head. Unlike foil and epee, saber fencers can score with either the tip or the edge of the blade.
Mariel Zagunis, 19, won the gold medal Tuesday night, defeating China's Tan Xue, 15-9.
"I can't put into words really how I feel, it's just so incredible. It's awesome," she said. "It's really cool. I'm going to go down in the books, so that's pretty cool."
Mariel Zagunis would not have had a chance to go into the Olympic history books were it not for a decision by fencing's international governing body two months after the original U.S. squad³ was named. Nigeria declined to send its qualified⁴ fencer Jacqueline Esimaje, who was not ranked in the world's top 100. Since no other African fencers had world rankings in women's saber, the vacated spot went to the highest ranked athlete who had not previously⁵ qualified for the Athens games. That was Zagunis. So it allowed the United States to become the only country with three athletes in the event.
Zagunis had lost a one-point decision to Sada Jacobson - ranked number one in the world - in the final U.S. Olympic qualifier.
The 21-year-old Jacobson won the bronze medal here by defeating Romanian Catalina Gheorghitoaia,15-7.
Jacobson had lost to silver medalist Tan in the semifinals. She took that loss hard, and her coach helped her regroup for the bronze medal match.
"I kind of forced myself to pick myself up and go fence the last bout⁶. It really did feel good," she said. "It was kind of a redeeming⁷ feeling to be about to win your last bout, even though the end result was not exactly what I wanted. I was so happy to have a medal."
The United States had not won any fencing medals since a men's bronze in Los Angeles 20 years ago. It's the first time an American team has won multiple medals in a fencing event since the 1904 St. Louis Olympics.
Parke Brewer, VOA News, Athens.
注释:
fencing 击剑
saber 佩剑
target  目标
hip 髋部
foil 花剑
epee 重剑
blade 剑
incredible 难以置信的
awesome 可怕的
squad 队
rank 排名
bronze 铜牌
semifinal 半决赛
bout  较量
redeeming 弥补

1 brewer   

n. 啤酒制造者

参考例句：

• Brewer is a very interesting man. 布鲁尔是一个很有趣的人。
• I decided to quit my job to become a brewer. 我决定辞职，做一名酿酒人。

2 hips   

abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的

参考例句：

• She stood with her hands on her hips. 她双手叉腰站着。
• They wiggled their hips to the sound of pop music. 他们随着流行音乐的声音摇晃着臀部。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 squad   

n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组

参考例句：

• The squad leader ordered the men to mark time.班长命令战士们原地踏步。
• A squad is the smallest unit in an army.班是军队的最小构成单位。

4 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

5 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

6 bout   

n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛

参考例句：

• I was suffering with a bout of nerves.我感到一阵紧张。
• That bout of pneumonia enfeebled her.那次肺炎的发作使她虚弱了。

7 redeeming   

补偿的，弥补的

参考例句：

• I found him thoroughly unpleasant, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. 我觉得他一点也不讨人喜欢，没有任何可取之处。
• The sole redeeming feature of this job is the salary. 这份工作唯其薪水尚可弥补一切之不足。