"Destiny's Child" Fencer Mariel Zagunis defends her Saber Gold medal

Surprise gold medal winner in the Athens Olympics, Mariel Zagunis had a Cinderella story the last time she competed in this high-level of play. After only been fencing for 4 years she became the first American woman gold medalist in over 100 years! It seemed like it was meant to be for her. While she did compete in Athens, it was only by sheer luck of the draw that she was able to join her American compatriots in the fencing team after Nigeria declined to send its own representative in the Olympic fencing competition. Surely, Zagunis herself thought about how lucky she was to see Greek soil and participate in the ultimate competition for fencing.

Having an "Olympic family" did her well too. Her mom Cathy was part of the U.S. Olympics team in 1976 and participated in the rowing competition. Her brother introduced her to fencing and she was inspired to join him practice the sport she became famous for 4 years after by winning the Olympic gold medal. This kind of feat is very rare even by Olympics standards. She breezed through the competition and went on to win against China's Tan Xue and finished ahead of Sada Jacobson who was the world number 1 before the Athens Olympics started.

These days, Mariel spends her time polishing her moves as well providing small inspiration talks to kids. The kids who will likely succeed her place in the near future. In fact, some of those kids are already in her fencing club. One of which, Rebecca Ward, had beaten her in in Turin Italy during last year's Fencing World Championships. There are a lot of up and comers surrounding her which puts her into more pressure to qualify and repeat her gold medal performance in the Olympics. Next year, the biggest challenge may not come from China or other fencing superpowers but from her own U.S. Fencing team.

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