Sada Jacobson
| Olympic medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
Representing  United States
| ||
| Women's Fencing | ||
 |
2004 Athens | Individual Sabre |
 |
2008 Beijing | Individual Sabre |
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pan American Games | ||
 |
2003 Dominican Republic | Individual Sabre |
Sada Jacobson (born February 14, 1983), from Dunwoody, Georgia, is an American fencer.
Background
Jacobson is a daughter of David Jacobson (who many at the Nellya Fencing Club call DJ), a member of the 1974 U.S. National fencing team in saber and now an endocrinologist, and Tina Jacobson, who has also fenced competitively.
She is the sister of fellow U.S. Olympic team fencer Emily Jacobson, born December 1985. She also has a younger sister, Jackie, born February 26, 1989, who is also a world-class fencer.
Jacobson swam competitively for 2 years in high school.[1]
She graduated with a history degree from Yale University. She postponed her college career to train full-time for the Athens 2004 Olympics. She took silver at the Olympics in Beijing in 2008, and is currently ranked # 1 in the world for women's sabre fencing.
Fencing career
Sada began fencing competitively at the relatively-late age of 15. Within two years, she was a member of the U.S. National team.
College & Under-19 career
Jacobson is a 2-time NCAA saber champion for Yale (2001 and 2002).[2][3]
She won an NCAA Championship and earned 1st-team All-America honors as a freshman at Yale University, after a 30-0 regular season.
Jacobson was 29-1 as a sophomore, and repeated as NCAA champion.
In addition, she was the 2001 Under-19 National Champion.
National Championships
Jacobson won the US women's sabre championship in 2004 and 2006.[4] She was ranked # 1 in the US from June 2003 through October 2005.
Senior World Championships
Jacobson is a 4-time Senior World Championships team member (2000-03).
She was a member of the gold-medal 2000 Women's Sabre World Championship team at the age of 17. She won another bronze medal at the 2006 World Fencing Championships sabre competition.
In her first individual World Championships in 2001, Jacobson placed 12th. She placed 5th in 2002 and 2003.
Number 1 World Ranking
In 2004 she became the first U.S. woman to be ranked No. 1 in the world in sabre, and only the second U.S. athlete to claim the title, after male fencer Keeth Smart.[5][6][7]
Pan American Games
Jacobson won the gold medal in sabre at the 2003 Pan American Games.[8]
Olympic Medal
In 2004, she took a leave of absence from Yale University and qualified for the U.S. Olympic team. That year was the first in which women's individual sabre was contested at an Olympic Games.
Jacobson breezed past Cuban Miclin Faez, as she beat the 17th seed 15-4, in the round of 16. She faced a much tougher challenge in 8th seed Leonore Perrus, whom she faced in the quarterfinals, and beat 15-11 to advance to the semifinals. She lost her shot at gold or silver when she lost to Xue Tan of China (seeded 5th) 15-12.
On August 17th she won the bronze medal by defeating Catalina Gheorhitoaia of Romania 15-7. She won the bronze medal in a match contested before the gold-silver duel, and thus became the first women's sabre Olympic medalist.
Beijing 2008 Olympics
The US womens' sabre team, including Jacobson, Mariel Zagunis, and Rebecca Ward, are favoured to win the team sabre event on August 9, 2008.[9]
Jacobson and Ward have also been named the top seeds for the individual sabre competition in women's fencing. The individual matches begin 8/9/08. All three Americans will get a first-round bye in the tournament.[10]
Top non-Americans include World No.3 Tan Xue of China, a silver medalist at both the Athens Olympics and the 2008 Women's Sabre World Cup, Elena Netchaeva of Russia, reigning World Champion aiming to improve on her fifth place finish at Athens 2004, and Anne-Lise Touya of France, 2005 World Champion.[11]
Jacobson garnered the silver medal in women's individual sabre at the Beijing Olympics, going down to Zagunis by a score of 15-8[1].
Miscellaneous
- Jacobson and her sister have been compared to the Williams sisters (Venus and Serena), who have dominated women's professional tennis.
- The Jacobson sisters haven't faced each other since a junior World Cup that Emily won in Budapest, Hungary, in January 2002
- 2003 Titan Games sabre gold medalist.
- She has been coached by Arkady Burdan of Nellya Fencers, and Henry Hartunian at Yale. Burdan is a former Soviet fencer and coach who left the Soviet Union in 1989 as a Jewish refugee, and eventually settled in Atlanta.
- Says The Princess Bride is her favorite movie, because lead actor Mandy Patinkin “actually took fencing lessons for several weeks” before filming one scene. According to Jacobson, “It shows.”[12]
Awards
- Jacobson, who is Jewish, received the Marty Glickman Award for the Outstanding Jewish Scholastic Athlete of the Year in both 2002 and 2005.[13][14]
- She was also named Academic All-Ivy League for the spring of 2002.
- In 2003 Jacobson was named the U.S. Fencer of the Year.
- In 2003, she was also inducted in the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, which recognizes outstanding Jewish athletes.[15]
References
External links
- Olympic results
- U.S. Olympic Team bio
- Fencing Media bio
- Rankings
- National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame bio[16]
- Jewish Heroes and Heroines of America from World War II to the Present: A Judaica Collection Exhibit; Sada Jacobson: Fencing Champion; by Seymour “Sy” Brody
- Jewish Virtual Library bio
- Jewish Heroes and Heroines of America from World War II to the Present: Sada Jacobson: Fencing Champion