For the first time in nearly 50 years, Portland is hosting the USA Fencing National Championships.
The ten-day tournament kicks off this Sunday, with thousands of fencing athletes from around the world competing for national titles.
Michael McTigue served as the executive director of the non-profit Northwest Fencing for 5 years and now volunteers as a coach. He’s been fencing, competing and coaching for the last 48 years.
Sandra Marchant is a national fencing champion who’s coming to town to compete. She frequently travels to Portland to host a women-only fencing summer camp called The Athena Project. We’ll hear from McTigue and Marchant ahead of the tournament.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. For the first time in nearly 50 years, the largest fencing tournament in the world is coming back to Portland. The 2026 USA Fencing National Championships and July Challenge starts tomorrow. Over 6,000 fencers from all around the country, ranging in age from 7 to 89, will fill the Oregon Convention Center for 10 days.
I’m joined now by two fencers who are taking part. Michael McTigue has been competing and coaching for almost 50 years. He is a previous executive director of the nonprofit Northwest Fencing Center. Sandra Marchant is a national fencing champion who will be coaching and competing. She is no stranger to Portland. She frequently travels here to host a women’s-only summer fencing camp called The Athena Project.
Michael and Sandra, it’s great to have both of you on the show.
Michael McTigue: It’s great to be here.
Sandra Marchant: Thank you for having us.
Miller: Michael, I mentioned you’ve been fencing for close to 50 years. What first drew you to it?
McTigue: Oh wow. I was actually a track athlete and pretty good at it, but still had to take a gym class in college. I liked Errol Flynn movies, so I jumped in. I don’t know what happened, but within six weeks I was off the track team and joined the fencing team, and I’ve been fencing ever since.
Miller: You’d gone to college thinking you’d run?
McTigue: Yeah, I ran all through high school and assumed that I’d be running all through college.
Miller: You say you don’t know what happened, but I’m going to push you a little bit to see if you can remember back to something about fencing that made you drop what you were very good at and continue on this new path.
McTigue: I think it’s because I love puzzles, and every time you fence, you have a new puzzle you have to solve from second to second. And being slightly ADD I found that that type of focus was something I could do and excel at.
Miller: Sandra, does that metaphor ring true to you as well, that fencing is a puzzle?
Marchant: Absolutely. There’s so much strategy involved, and you have to think as well as move. So it’s a moving puzzle. And those of us that are a little bit of an adrenaline junkie and love a challenge, this is the perfect sport for you.
Miller: So if it’s a puzzle, and you have to think, and it’s kind of in the moment, chess – moves and countermoves – what are you looking at? Where are you looking and what are you paying attention to?
Marchant: Well, you’re paying attention to your opponent. It’s hit or get hit. So you’re trying to constantly set traps and try to figure out what’s going on. There’s distance, there’s timing, there’s reaction, and you’re trying to get in to hit your opponent without them hitting you.
Miller: What is an example of a trap that you’re trying to set?
Marchant: Well, you might step in with your body, hoping to lure them in to hit, and then you’re going to reach out and hit them instead, and get away as quick as you can.
Miller: Michael, I’m curious … I mentioned the age range here. It’s an enormous, beautiful age range of under 10 to almost 90. Is this an ageless sport?
McTigue: I think in a way, it is. One of the real beauties to it, to me, especially being around fencing clubs, is it’s one of the last, true intergenerational areas that you’ll be in, where you have people who are in their 50s and 60s treating people who are in their teens, for instance, as peers. They’re fencing together, they’re talking together, they’re giving each other advice, both from the old to the young, and from the young back to the old.
Miller: Could a very good 60-year-old fencer do well against a novice 18-year-old?
McTigue: Oh, hell yeah. [Laughs]
Miller: Because I mean, pure athleticism and fast twitch muscles, the 18-year-old might have those, but the skill and wisdom of the 60-year-old is going to win every time?
McTigue: They’re way faster than I am, but I often know where they’re going before they’ve left the station.
Miller: What do you mean by that?
McTigue: They’re untrained at disguising their actions, so you know that they’re about to lunge.
Miller: And you’re saying they may not even know yet, but you can just tell that that’s what they’re going to do?
McTigue: Yeah, to a more experienced fencer, it’s almost like there’s a neon sign over their head saying, “here I come,” and they don’t realize they’re doing it.
Miller: A ton of tells, and you can read that?
McTigue: Yeah, precisely that.
Miller: Sandra, so Michael was almost surprised, it seems, by becoming a fencer as a track and field star. How did you get started?
Marchant: I ran into a family friend and I was older, I was 25 – I did not start young. I was always involved in soccer and softball. I was a big geek. “Star Wars” was my thing. And he said, “Hey, I teach the class at the local university. Why don’t you come in and take it? And I said, “You know, I don’t go to college anymore.” And he said, “Come take my class.” And the minute I held the foil in my hand, it was like, no joke, the lights got brighter and I could hear music in my head, and I just knew it was something I had to do.
Miller: The music was John Williams’ “Star Wars” music and you were holding a lightsaber?
Marchant: It was very similar, yeah,
Miller: I mean, you brought up being a “Star Wars” fan – that really was a connection for you?
Marchant: Honest and truly it was. It felt like home. There was a connection, and I just knew it was something I had to do. I’m 55 now and I haven’t stopped.
Miller: Thirty years later?
Marchant:.Yeah.
Miller: As you’ve honed your skills – I mentioned you’re a national champion, you’ve also won gold medals –
Marchant: I’m a world champion, Veteran Team USA.
Miller: Can you still tap into – and I mean this in a respectful way – the sort of the childlike piece of this, because on some level, you’re playing a game with fake swords. Or are they real swords? I mean, they’re not sharp with a sharp tip.
Marchant: They are not sharp, but they are metal, and once you have your blade in your hand, how can you not revert to being a child? Every time you put your mask down, you’re giggling, smiling and laughing. It’s fun.
Miller: Even in the world championships, you still feel that sense of play?
Marchant: You have to have a sense of play if you want to be good at it.
Miller: What do you mean by that?
Marchant: Well, if you take it so seriously and you are just locked in all the time, you’re not having fun. It’s still a sport. We do this because we enjoy this, not because we have to do this. So, yeah.
Miller: Michael, do you feel the same way?
McTigue: Oh yeah, when you clench down on a muscle long enough, it’ll cramp up. The same thing happens to your brain. So if you have that sense of play and that sense of joy in it, it’s almost always where the best results come from.
Miller: How much has the sport changed in the almost 50 years that you’ve been doing it?
McTigue: In some cases, the changes have been kind of subtle. But I think mostly in just its exposure and popularity. We were the odd kids in the corner. Certainly, where I grew up in New England, there was no fencing at all. It wasn’t until I was in college in New York that there was fencing that I was able to access. And there probably were fewer athletes fencing in the United States total then than there probably are just in the state of New Jersey now. It has exploded.
Miller: How do you explain that?
McTigue: I can’t. [Laughs]
Miller: I imagine you’re thrilled by it, but you have no explanation?
McTigue: Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, more fencing clubs, people getting out and seeing it, opportunities like this to tell people about it. There aren’t the barriers that there were when I started. If you were in college or you had a family friend that said, “hey, come take my class,” you might have a chance to start. But otherwise, unless you were going to a private school, you didn’t get exposed to it.
Miller: It’s interesting you mentioned a private school because I think of fencing as a kind of elitist sport or activity. Sandra, is that right?
Marchant: I believe that if you want to fence, you can fence recreationally. It’s inexpensive. USA Fencing has put forth many programs in the last two years to help with that. So we’re getting more fencing in schools. We’re getting more fencing out to park and recs, where you can get the equipment through the park and rec. It’s like $50 for three months to join. It’s affordable now. Yes, if you want to travel and you want to do all the big tournaments like hockey, it’s an elitist sport when it comes to that.
Miller: When travel is involved, any sport gets expensive. But you’re saying that the basics are relatively available.
Marchant: It’s definitely affordable now, much more so since USA Fencing.
McTigue: And right here in Portland, Northwest Fencing Center is a not-for-profit. If somebody wants to do a one month intro course, just show up. You don’t need equipment. You don’t really need equipment at all until you decide maybe you want to compete, at which point you might have to get your own stuff. But all of it’s provided. Show up with a pair of sneakers and give it a rip.
Miller: I want to turn to coaching because both of you, in addition to being competitors, have made coaching a big part of your fencing lives. Sandra, what has it meant to you to become a coach?
Marchant: My original coach gave back to me when I couldn’t afford to fence. And in exchange for lessons, I cleaned his house and I did chores like that to afford lessons so that I could train and be a competitor. It was only natural that I felt like I wanted to give back, and I love working with people. So it was a no brainer. Coaching means the world to me because it opens you up to meeting new people, diversity, and when you coach somebody, you see the little light go on, and then you see the confidence build, and how their character changes, and they stand up a little straighter. I believe it’s just a natural step to take. It wasn’t even something I even thought of.
Miller: Michael, what about you? How’d you become a coach?
McTigue: I was roped into it. My children fenced. My oldest daughter was quite good. She was national caliber level by the time she was a freshman in high school. And she joined the high school fencing team – this was in New Jersey before I’d moved out here. And New Jersey high school fencing is like football is in Texas. There are 70 men’s teams, 70 women’s teams. It’s huge. And she said, “Could you come help the fencing team?” And I figured, I suppose I can find some time. And I got down there on a Wednesday night and I never left.
Miller: Was it a secret “I suppose” or were you desperately hoping that you’d be asked?
McTigue: No, it was a secret, “I suppose.” I mean, I actually sort of felt like it was going to be a chore. What it clued me into, one of the other things I discovered about myself through fencing, was I love to teach. And it became a huge part of my life – coaching that team, and then at fencing clubs, coming out here to coach. It’s a tremendous sport for teaching things because it’s so much like life. It’s an individual sport that you can’t do alone.
Miller: Sandra, I mentioned The Athena Project that you’ve been doing for a while now, including here in Portland. What is The Athena Project?
Marchant: The Athena Project was actually Michael’s baby. This was his ingenuity come to life. He contacted me and said, “Girls in fencing – not a lot of camps, opportunities, just women to women, girls to girls.” And I was like, “What do you mean? There are girls’ camps.” And he said, “Name one.” And I was taken aback and I said, “You know, this is something I have to do.” And he’s like, “I want you to start this. I want to do it together.”
I came out to Northwest and we ran the first camp in 2023. We averaged two a year at Northwest. Oregon is my second home, so flying in yesterday was like coming home. And it’s a project where girls and women can go and they don’t have to be concerned about their bodies. They don’t have all that hanging on them. They can build confidence, they can talk with other girls, other women, about what’s going on. Their bodies are changing. It’s awkward being in a fencing center with a bunch of boys and not being able sometimes to speak up or feel like they have a place. It gives them a safe space, and they’re more inspired. They have role models now. When I started fencing, there were no role models for me.
Miller: No women.
Marchant: No, I didn’t know any of them. Even when you looked around. I was a comic book geek, and there was Wonder Woman. Like really, that was it. And I didn’t have a superhero. I didn’t have somebody to look up to. This gives women and girls a chance to have people to look up to, to make connections, to feel better about their bodies, to have a safe space, to be able to talk to people.
In gym class, in middle school, I failed it. And it wasn’t that I wasn’t the fastest runner in the school because I was. And it wasn’t that I [didn’t] do great in gym, because I did. I was afraid to change in the girls’ locker room. Because my body was changing and I was uncomfortable with myself. So these camps give girls more opportunities to be accepted.
Miller: Michael, what does it mean to you to have this idea that you wanted to get off the ground, to still be going?
McTigue: Oh, it’s a tremendous gift. Because it’s an all-women place, there were times where I could be like a little fly on the wall, peek in the window and hear the stories and stuff. It’s something that I wish had been there for my children when they came up. Fortunately, they were both real battlers. But they would have benefited tremendously from that, and it’s nice to see that other folks are going to be able to benefit from that.
Miller: What do you think it means for the Northwest that this national championship is about to start here?
McTigue: It’s really heartwarming that it’s back up here. You wouldn’t think the Northwest would be a powerhouse in fencing. Yet, over 50 years ago, it started to be a center of fencing. Not just New York City and not just LA. It was largely down to two French brothers, Yves Auriol and his brother both came out here to be fencing masters. The Salle Auriol Fencing Club is still active up in Seattle. And the Salle Auriol Portland facility, when Yves went off to coach at Notre Dame’s team, transformed into Northwest Fencing Center.
Miller: We’ve been talking almost exclusively about the fencers, but I’m curious now before we say goodbye about potential spectators. I did note that this event is free for people to watch. So, for people who don’t really know that much about fencing, what do you recommend they do? If they want to get a sense for it, when should they go, and what should they be looking for?
Marchant: Each day, there’s fencing for 10 days. They’re going to see all ages. So when they walk in the door, there’s a big “wow” factor. There’re three different weapons in the sport of fencing, three different blades: foil, épée, and sabre. They all have their own appeal. And if they just walk in, and just take a look around, there’s so many people like us that are so engaged with the sport. If someone came up to me and said, “hey, what’s going on here,” anybody [would be] happy to help and say, “this is what you see.”
Miller: Is there an opportunity for people to try it out?
Marchant: I believe USA Fencing and Northwest also have some booths there for that.
McTigue: Yeah, there are going to be booths there for people to try things out. There’s a lot of fun stuff. Tomorrow, Rob Nelson is going to be there – the Big League Chew guy from Portland, he mostly sponsors kids’ events. On the 30th and the 1st, the No Drama Llamas are going to be there. But basically, you just go to a USA Fencing table or to the Northwest table, and say, “Hey, I’m new. Can somebody tell me what’s going on?” Nobody asks us about fencing. [Laughter]
Miller: They’ll be mobbed by people who want to help and spread the word.
Marchant: But it looks so cool to the spectator who just walks in.
Miller: Michael and Sandra, thanks so much, and here’s to a great tournament.
Marchant: Thank you.
McTigue: Thanks for having us.
Miller: Michael McTigue and Sandra Marchant – they are fencers and coaches. They’ll be taking part in the championship over the next 10 days.
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