Fencing: US men’s epee team gets the gold, but not the glory
View full sizeCody Mattern (left) “was incredible” last month at the world team epee championships against France. Mattern mounted a comeback against Ulrich Robeirii, then handed the lead to Seth Kelsey, the U.S. closer. The French last month showed up for the final of the world men’s team epee championships in Kyiv, Ukraine, ready to celebrate.
The French had won every world or Olympic team epee championship since 2003.
Their opponents, the U.S. men, never had won a world championship with any of international fencing’s three weapons: epee, foil or saber.
But the underdog Americans — among them Cody Mattern, who learned to fence at the Northwest Fencing Center in Beaverton, and Seth Kelsey, who graduated from Oregon Episcopal School — spoiled the party to score a victory that was historic, emotional and bittersweet.
The U.S. fell behind early, which often is fatal in team competition. But Mattern mounted a stirring comeback and handed the lead to Kelsey, the U.S. closer. Kelsey put the French away.
“Cody Mattern was incredible,” said U.S. coach Sebastien Dos Santos, fencing master at the Northwest Fencing Center in Beaverton. “The French team was very motivated and up by seven touches. Nobody expected us to come back.”
Even Team USA had a pinch-me moment when the bout ended.
After the U.S. fencers stopped celebrating, they composed themselves to shake hands with the referees and the French team. The handshaking wouldn’t stop.
“Another guy would come up, and then another,” said Mattern, beginning to feel like a presidential candidate at a campaign stop. “I was thinking, ‘Where did all these guys come from?’ Well, the French were going to set a world record by winning nine world championships in a row. So they sent all these extra dignitaries, because they all wanted to be there.”
The victory was emotional for the U.S. team for other reasons, too.
No shot at team gold
Because the International Olympic Committee allows fencing 10 team championships, and there are 12 possible team events, two team championships aren’t contested in each Olympics. The weapons that won’t have a team competition in London this summer? Women’s saber and men’s epee.
This year’s world team championship bout between the French and Team USA took the place of an Olympic gold-medal match — minus the pomp, ceremony and NBC cameras.
“For us, right team, wrong year,” Dos Santos said.
Fencing insiders say winning a world championship is more difficult than an Olympic gold medal, because the Olympic field is geographically balanced. At the world championships, teams are picked by merit.
That said, the public only pays attention every four years.
“Winning an Olympics would be awesome because you would get tons more coverage,” Kelsey said.
Turning to coaching
Mattern, 31, is retiring from international competition. A 2004 Olympian and an Olympic alternate in 2008, Mattern has operated on the world stage since winning USA Fencing’s U20 championship in 1998. He has had some injury issues in recent years, including a painful case of plantar fasciitis.
“He’s going to be impossible to replace,” Kelsey said. “He’s been a rock for this team for a long, long time. There isn’t another Cody Mattern.”
View full sizeThe U.S. men’s epee team of Soren Thompson (from left), Seth Kelsey, Ben Bratton and Cody Mattern beat the favored French in stunning fashion last month in Kyiv, Ukraine.Mattern, a noncommissioned U.S. Army officer in stationed in Colorado Springs, trains at the U.S. Olympic Center as a member of the Army’s World Class Athlete Program.
When Mattern’s Army commitment ends in October, he plans to return to the Portland area and become a coach at the Northwest Fencing Center.
“I’m excited for him,” Kelsey said. “He’s wanted to coach his whole life, and that’s the job he wanted.”
Eyes fixed on Olympics
Dos Santos is stepping down as U.S. coach and leaving the Northwest Fencing Center to return to his native France.
“I need to take a little bit of time for my sanity,” Dos Santos said. “This has been a lot of travel, and it’s been very hard on my family. I need to give them some quality time.”
Kelsey, 30, will continue on. He made his third Olympic team this year in individual epee, and plans to fence internationally through the 2016 Olympic Games.
An Air Force reserve officer, Kelsey also trains in Colorado Springs. If things break right, he might do some damage this summer in London.
“His strength is that he is able to raise his level in the most stressful situations,” Dos Santos said. “That’s where he’s at his best. He likes the tension.”
Kelsey causes opponents some unique problems.
“He has a very atypical game, not classical,” Dos Santos said. “At lot of fencers don’t know how to handle it.”
Well, the French team didn’t in Kyiv, anyway.
And the U.S. has a world epee championship to show for it.
— Ken Goe; follow him on Twitter
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