Delia Turner is a vivacious, energetic woman who has accomplished much in life simply by, as she says, "showing up". She has held a wide variety of jobs, including legal secretary, science teacher, English Department Chair, published author, calligrapher, and Adjunct Faculty at Temple University. She started fencing at 40 years of age and has become one of the top Veteran Women's Sabre fencers in the US—and in the world. Listen as she talks about her fencing career, how her role as an educator helped her fencing skills, and about the two protagonists she created for her fantasy books. She also gives advice to adult fencers and tells us why fencing Sabre is like writing with a fountain pen. Tune in this week to hear the stories of a wonderful storyteller, Delia Turner.

Dan Kellner started fencing in the 7th grade. He had a video game called Summer Games and had trouble figuring out the fencing part. He asked his mom about the sport so much that eventually she took him to his first coach, Ted Li. Ted was the Olympic Armourer at the time and would expose Dan to his first taste of attaining a shot at Olympic Gold. Later, Dan became Simon Gershon's student. Where Coach Li was instrumental in teaching and perfecting Dan's foil technique, Coach Gershon led him through the tactics of the game. The work of both coaches would lead to many successes in fencing: Silver at the National Championships in 1997, 1998, and 2000.

With such a phenomenal trajectory in the works, Dan instead hit rock bottom in 2000. He missed qualifying for the Olympic Team that year and took it really hard. It was a challenging time for him both mentally and physically: he gained weight from the lack of activity and was in a funk. But fencing called him back. A year to the day he walked out of his club for what he thought would be for the last time, he went back to Coach Gershon and started training again.

Two years later, in 2003, Dan won gold at the Pan-American Games. He earned the National Championship title in 2004 and made the Olympic Team that same year. He retired from competitive fencing in 2006 and is now the owner and Head Coach of the Brooklyn Bridge Fencing Club.

Listen to the incredible story of how Dan Kellner turned his fencing career from smoldering ashes to fiery victory. He suffered the greatest of defeats—not reaching his ultimate goal of competing in the Olympic Games—and found the strength within himself to try again. And succeeded.

What an inspiration!

Andrew Fischl didn't start fencing until his junior year of high school but achieved a lot very quickly: he was 5th in the country in 2013. Before fencing, Andrew had tried many sports: soccer, tennis, baseball, lacrosse, etc but none of these sports really engaged him the way fencing did.

The reason most people know him is because of the videos he creates. Going by the name Cyrus of Chaos (his handle in Super Smash Brothers) his YouTube channel currently houses over 2500 videos of international-level competitions. He started recording bouts at his first Div 1 NAC in Columbus in 2007, when he, in his words, "was a wide-eyed little fencer who got destroyed in my pool leaving me the rest of the day to walk around and watch. I remember seeing so many things that made me think "oh I should be doing it like this" or "I want to try the timing of that next time I am at practice". Then the next day I couldn't specifically remember anything." He took his parent's videocamera to the next tournament and began recording everything he could.

He still does that to this day. Andrew's biggest regret is that he can't make it to every international tournament to capture footage. If you know of anyone who would be willing to help Cyrus of Chaos with this issue, please contact him through his YouTube channel, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, or Twitter.

http://www.youtube.com/user/CyrusofChaos http://www.filmannex.com/webtv/AndrewFischl https://twitter.com/CyrusofChaos

Listen now to the interview I did with Cyrus of Chaos, aka Andrew Fischl.

Keeth Smart is a saber fencer who achieved a lot of success on the fencing strip. He qualified for three Olympics, placing 30th in 2000, 15th in individual and 4th in the team event in 2004, 6th in individual in 2008. He also won the silver medal in the team event that year, after serving as the anchor. In 2002 and 2004, Keeth won the US National Sabre Championship. Perhaps greatest of all, in 2003, he became the first American to be named the top-ranked fencer internationally. He was elected to the US Fencing Hall of Fame in 2014.

You can still find Keeth involved in our sport. He coaches at the Peter Westbrook Foundation and serves on their Board. But he's also involved in the world of business. After an internship at Google, several managerial positions at Verizon and Bank of America, Keeth decided to start his own business, Physiclo, in 2014. He and his team created and now produce high quality compression gear with built in resistance for a more productive workout. Physiclo has received great reviews from publications such as Men's Health, the Gloss, and Engadget, as well as rave reviews from athletes of many kinds of sport. You can check out the gear on their website www.physiclo.com, on Instagram, and also on Facebook.

Listen now to the interview I did with Keeth Smart, fencer and businessman extraordinaire. Also a super nice guy!

Note: This one unfortunately turned out a little "buzzy" for Keeth's side of the interview. Working to improve that!

Back in the day, coaches received training at was then called Coaches' College. Begun in the late 80s by the United States Fencing Association, its purpose was to create an opportunity for professional development for fencing coaches.

When the cold war ended, the USFA brought Soviet bloc coaches over in 1990 to lead the program with Jack Keene serving as the main organizer. Alex Beguinet and Vinnie Bradford took up the reins in 1993. Vinnie helped organize it for 10 years, Alex for 20. The USFA decided to cancel the Coaches' College in 2003.

The United States Fencing Coaches Association (USFCA) started the Coaches' Academy last year to fill the professional development void. Only 8 coaches attended but the spark was created. The Academy this year, organized by Gary Vanderwege, had triple the number of participants. It featured a Moniteur level session from July 30-Aug 3, and an advanced (Prevot and Master) level session from Aug 2-6. The USFCA Annual General meeting was held Aug 3 and several special awards were given out.

The main purpose of the Coaches' Academy was to prepare coaches for their certification exams, with most sessions being led by fencing Masters like Peter Burchard, Gary Vanderwege, Paul Sise, Vinnie Bradford, and Jen Oldham. Ariana Klinkov and David Sierra also were on hand to help guide participants. In addition there were sessions such as sport psychology, the business side of being a fencing coach, armory sessions led by Michael Mergens, referee seminars, yoga, watching Dan Kellner give Sam Moelis a high-level Foil lesson, a roundtable discussion about coach vs referee ethics, among others.

All in all the Coaches' Academy appears to be getting off to a strong start, as evidenced by the comments from the participants. Listen now to their input about what they experienced at Keystone College in Pennsylvania in early August.

Michael "Mergs" Mergens, is a USFA certified Armorer, Coach and Referee with over 35 years of experience in the sport of Fencing. He regularly works as the Head Armorer and Team Armorer for many of the USA Fencing National and International events. He is the owner of the online Armorer's Store (http://www.thearmorersstore.com) and is the author of the well-known book called The Care and Feeding of all Things Fencing.

Mergs graduated from Texas A&M in 1977 with an engineering degree and belonged to the Corps of Cadets and Parson's Mounted Calvary. He went on to serve in the US Army and was stationed in Bosnia and Iraq. He also was a part of many projects for NASA, including the creation of a trash compactor for the Space Station. This is one smart man!!

Listen now to the interview I did with him in the cafeteria of Keystone College in Pennsylvania where we were both attending the Coaches' Academy.

Like all of my guests, Lynn Botelho is a multi-faceted individual. She is a professor of history at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and serves as the Director of Women's and Gender Studies. She teaches courses on the Renaissance and Reformation, early modern Europe, the history of the body, and English history. She has written numerous books on the history of old age and the aging body. You can check out her blog https://lynnbotelho.com/home/ for more information about them.

On a comical note, I checked out Lynn's profile on the popular "Rate my Professor" site. Her top tags are: GET READY TO READ (7) TOUGH GRADER (5) EXTRA CREDIT (3) AMAZING LECTURES (3) INSPIRATIONAL (2) SO MANY PAPERS (2) RESPECTED (2) CLEAR GRADING CRITERIA (1) LECTURE HEAVY (1) SKIP CLASS? YOU WON'T PASS. (1) GIVES GOOD FEEDBACK (1) LOTS OF HOMEWORK (1)

Lynn is also a high-level foil fencer and has earned many honors in our sport. She has been part of many Veteran World Championship Teams, earning Silver in Team Foil and Bronze in Individual in 2016, and Gold in Team Foil in 2015. She became the Veteran 50 Women's Foil Champion at Summer Nationals this past July. She also still regularly competes in Division 1, which has inspired me to look at my own competition schedule for the upcoming season and add in a few for myself.

Listen now for the interview I did with Lynn while sitting on the floor near the referee lunch room at the Salt Palace during Summer Nationals.

Carla-Mae Richards allowed me to interview her the first day of Summer Nationals this year. It was really intimidating because she is a legend in our sport. Not only was she a fencer back when girls weren't really allowed to participate in sports, but she became the first Executive Director of what would become the United States Fencing Association. She has had a direct influence on many aspects of fencing, including the structure of the North American Cup, or NAC, tournament series.

If you want to read the speech she gave as she was being inducted into the Fencing Hall of Fame, visit http://usfencinghalloffame.com/wp/richards-carla-mae/ Here's a quote from it: Though I never succeeded, as an athlete, beyond New England fencing, there remained the fierce determination of the competitor to prove oneself. And so I traded the sword for the pen and paved the way for future growth – not just in numbers but in stature of and respect for US athletes. It was a roller coaster ride especially with little preparation. Today one would look for a person with sports administration background and perhaps an MBA. I was a computer programmer, a part time high school fencing coach and partner in our own fencing businesses. To say that I tackled the challenges by the seat of my pants is an understatement and I landed on my seat more times than I can recall. The learning process was arduous, not just for me but for all the volunteers who were conditioned to run the organization from the get go.

Listen as Ms. Richards tells you many stories about her experiences helping American fencing grow on the international stage. You'll probably recognize some of the names of people she mentions—she knows A LOT of people!

My guest today is Kamali Thompson. Kamali is a very dynamic and determined individual who not only trains as an elite athlete but is also in medical school. She very candidly talks about her training regimen and turning disappointment into success. A mere three weeks after learning she didn't make the Olympic team she rallied and won the Division 1 Women's Sabre championship. You'll learn about the village it takes to create an elite athlete and the journey that Kamali took--and is still taking--to reach the pinnacle of our sport.

I had so much fun doing this interview. Even though it was long distance, Kamali's energy and laughter made it a joy. Tune in now for an interview full of powerful insights into the double life of Kamali Thompson.

This year's Summer Nationals and July Challenge broke records for attendance, even though the qualifying paths were more challenging. Many participants and coaches commented on how much more difficult every event was than in past years, which means the overall quality of fencing in our country is increasing! Over 4200 athletes total competed in this tournament—most of whom did multiple events. Day 6 had the highest number of participants in a single day: nearly 1500!

Every day, I did a series of one-minute interviews to capture the stories of the people who make up this incredible environment. You'll hear from armourers, National Office staff, vendors, fencing parents, Olympians, coaches, fencers, and referees. Every person at the venue was vital to the success of such a huge event. You'll also hear the energy, excitement, and NOISE the participants experienced. Tune in now to hear what the largest fencing tournament in the world sounded like!