Thompson, James to head to Athens seeking Olympic glory

The greatest amateur sporting event, the Olympic Games, will be held in Athens, Greece this August. Among the hundreds of athletes participating in the 2004 games will be Soren Thompson '05 and Kamara James '07, two Princeton fencers who will join their accomplished Olympic teammates in representing United States fencing against the rest of the world.

Yet the road to this ancient and most prestigious sporting event has not been easy for either fencer, as both have had to sacrifice over the years in order to dedicate their lives to the sport and to achieve their ultimate goals of Olympic glory.

"I had to sacrifice a lot in terms of time and extracurriculars," Thompson said. "I traveled a lot during the school year and my training schedule was pretty intense."

Thompson's fencing career began in earnest at the age of 15, when he made the two-hour drive to L.A. twice a week from his home in San Diego for more formal training than he could get in high school. More known for beach volleyball and water polo, southern California was not quite the nurturing fencing community that many of Thompson's peers grew up with in the northeast.

"I grew up in San Diego, which is far from the fencing capital of the world — there wasn't much fencing in the area, so my progress was gradual," Thompson said. "I was lucky because I had good coaches and training partners, so my development was very positive."

After rising swiftly through the ranks of cadet (under 17) and junior (under 20) competition, Thompson went on to make one Cadet World Championship team, as well as two Junior World Championship teams.

With so many accomplishments under his belt at such a young age, Thompson's next step was Princeton and the talented fencing team the University had to offer. It was at Princeton that Thompson solidified his fencing career. His experience on the team reached its zenith last year with NCAA success and his nomination to the Senior World Championship team.

"I had a difficult time balancing all the academic work of my junior year, including my independent work, with the competitions," Thompson said. "In the end it worked out really well, and my result at Worlds put me off to a great start for the Olympic qualification."

After so much success his junior year at Princeton and with a promising fencing career outside of college beckoning, Thompson had a tough decision to make — he could either stay in school, competing on the NCAA level and graduating with his 2004 classmates, or he could take the next year off to train and compete in hopes of qualifying for the Olympic team, postponing graduation until June 2005.

With the once in a lifetime opportunity of participating in the Olympic Games within his grasp, Thompson chose to chase his ultimate dream.

"The initial decision to leave Princeton for a year was tough because I knew I'd be putting my academic career on hold and that my '04 classmates would graduate without me," Thompson said. "But I couldn't pass up the opportunity to reach my lifelong goal of making the Olympic team.

"Since moving out of my dorm room last May I've been to 15 countries, made friends around the world, achieved the best results of my career and earned the right to compete in the world's premier amateur sporting event," he continued. "I hope I'm not asking for too much when I say that I want to win a medal in August."

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For Thompson, an epee fencer, Olympic qualifications were based on both U.S. individual and team world rankings, making it a very stressful and tournament-filled process. The team, which consists of only three members and one alternate, had to be the top team from the entire American Zone, which includes competition from all the other countries in North and South America.

"I was juggling individual and team responsibilities all year," Thompson said. "Starting the second weekend in January I competed in world cups 10 of the next 11 weeks, three were team qualifiers and seven were individual qualifiers."

But all that hard work paid off, as the Americans finished No. 1, ahead of the talented Canadian team, and Thompson concluded the season as the No. 3 U.S. fencer.

But Thompson will not be the only Princetonian at the Olympics this summer. He will be joined by the extraordinarily talented Kamara James. James, the only female U.S. epee fencer to qualify for the Olympics, finished her season ranked No. 50 in the world and as the bronze medalist in the 2003 Junior World Championships.

James's accomplishments are especially incredible due to the fact that she had to qualify individually as the U.S. Team finished the season behind Canada, thus knocking them out of the Olympic race because of the rules stipulating that only one team from the American Zone may compete.