Mariel Zagunis (born March 3, 1985) is an American Olympic athlete in the sport of fencing. She competed in the 2004 Athens Women’s saber competition and was the first American to win an Olympic fencing gold medal in a hundred years. She entered the University of Notre Dame in 2004 on an athletic scholarship.
Mariel is the daughter of Olympians as well. Her parents, Robert and Cathy Zagunis, were collegiate rowers (at Oregon State and Connecticut College, respectively) before competing with the U.S. rowing team at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. Both of her brothers also fence sabre.
Ms. Zagunis has numerous unique accomplishments in the sport. She was the first American fencer to hold the Jr. World Cup Champion title (2002) and she did so 3 years in a row (2002,2003,2004). She is the youngest fencer ever to win the coveted Federation International d’Escrime (FIE) World Championship gold, and the youngest fencer to win 3 FIE medals in one season. Ms. Zagunis won the FIE over-all medal 3 years in a row. She is the only fencer in the history of the sport to hold more than 2 World Champion titles in one season (2001: Cadet, Jr. and Jr. Team titles).
In October of 2005 Ms. Zagunis captured her 7th World Champion title at the Leipzig, Germany World Championships, in the Women’s team event.
Source: Wikipedia contributors (2006). Mariel Zagunis. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:47, April 11, 2006
