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Media Spotlights Barnard Alumna on Olympic Fencing Team
Erinn Smart, a Barnard alumna and member of the United States Olympic Fencing Team, was featured in newspapers around the world during the 2004 Olympic Games, along with her brother, also on the team. Smart '01, who ranked 11th in last year's World Championships, was the lone U.S. competitor in women's foil in the Athens Games.
USA Today focused on the Brooklyn native's introduction to the sport in 1991, when, at 11-years-old, she was one of the first children to join the Peter Westbrook Foundation. Founded by six-time Olympian Peter Westbrook, the foundation is dedicated to enriching the lives of New York City's youth through the sport of fencing. Erinn's father Tom enrolled her in the program when friends pointed out that fencing might be the ticket to college scholarships. Tom also enrolled his son Keeth, and after nine years of training with Westbrook, both Erinn and Keeth went to Sydney for the 2000 Olympics; Keeth competed in the saber competition, and Erinn went as an alternate but was not used. Both competed in Athens. (Click here to read the USA Today article in pdf format.)
The Dallas Morning News , The (Minneapolis) Star Tribune , and Newsday on Long Island have focused on the talent and successes of the siblings. Keeth won the 1997 and 1999 NCAA titles while fencing for St. John's University; Erinn, who graduated Barnard with a degree in economic history, won U.S. national titles in 1998, 2002 and 2004 on the Barnard-Columbia fencing team. And although they never compete directly, it's been mentioned that they train together and that Keeth switched to saber in part because he couldn't beat his sister in foil. (Click here to read the The Dallas Morning News , The (Minneapolis) Star Tribune , and Newsday on Long Island articles in pdf format.)
Although Erinn did not win a medal in Athens, losing to Mariana Gonzalez of Venezuela on Wednesday, August 18, Westbrook sees a bright future for her. The New York Post quoted Westbrook as saying of Erinn, "She has not even come into her greatness yet. I mean, she's an Olympian . . . but there's a whole lot more greatness coming out of her."
Read the article in the New York Times about Erinn Smart by clicking here.
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