Beth Mahr

We're the home of fencing in the United States — supporting newcomers, Olympians and Paralympians, and anyone who loves this wonderful sport. The Amateur Sports Act of 1978 named the United States Olympic Committee (now the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, or USOPC) as the coordinating body for amateur athletic activity in the U.S. directly relating to international Olympic and Paralympic athletic competition. The Act included provisions for recognizing National Governing Bodies (NGBs) for the sports on the programs of the Olympic, Paralympic and Pan American Games. USA Fencing is the recognized NGB for the sport of fencing in the United States. But our history goes much farther back than that. USA Fencing was founded in 1891 as the Amateur Fencers League of America (AFLA) by a group of New York fencers seeking independence from the Amateur Athletic Union. The AFLA changed its name to the United States Fencing Association in 1981. USA Fencing is affiliated with the Féderation Internationale d'Escrime (FIE), the international federation for fencing founded in Paris in 1913. USA Fencing was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation in Pennsylvania in 1964 and in Colorado in 1993 in compliance with the Amateur Sports Act and opened its national office in Colorado Springs, Colo., in August of 1982. Today, we call Colorado Springs our home but have members of our staff living across the country.