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Crews were busy Thursday installing dozens of fencing strips as far as the eye could see inside the Kansas City Convention Center, where thousands of fencers will descend for a tournament during the next four days.
USA Fencing's North American Cup used to regularly make stops in Kansas City, but the January 2025 North American Cup, or NAC, will be the city’s first since October 2019.
"Every month from October to April, there are North American Cups in different cities," Heartland Fencing Academy head coach Emilia Ivanova said. "... Every North American Cup hosts different events. This one is going to host Division I, which is the best fencers in the country and in the world."
Parafencers, cadet fencers and veteran fencers — broken down by age group for those over 40 years old — also will compete in Kansas City beginning Friday morning through Monday afternoon.
Phillip Nunnink, 19, a recent Rockhurst grad who earned all-conference honors this fall at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, is one of Heartland Fencing Academy's 13 fencers set to compete at this weekend's tourney.
"It will be a very tough day, but it'll be awesome to see some of the competition," Nunnink said. "You'll have Olympians, you'll have world champions, you'll have pretty much the best of the best fencing at this tournament, so it should be a pretty cool experience."
USA Fencing expects as many as 18 former Olympians — including Paris Olympic women's foil team gold medalists Lee Kiefer, Lauren Scruggs and Maia Weintraub — for the NAC in Kansas City.
"It's very cool, because there's not a ton of tournaments here around," Harrison McMillian, 13, another of Heartland Academy’s fencers, said. "It’s kind of the desert of the fencing world."
But this weekend, Kansas City is the epicenter of the fencing world with Kiefer, a two-time women's individual foil gold medalist, and Scruggs, the women's individual foil silver medalist in Paris, battling alongside lifelong enthusiasts and wheelchair competitors.
"That's kind of the nice thing about a sport that's somewhat niche is that you have an opportunity to meet some really, really high up people and practice with them or even compete with them, which is just such a fun thing," Nunnink said.
McMillian started fencing as a way to break out of his shell.
"I thought it looked like Star Wars with the swords, so we got into it that way because I was pretty shy and my mom wanted me to do a sport," McMillian said. "That seemed like a good fit."
Nunnink felt a similar attraction, but now he’s hooked for life.
"I've been fencing since I was about 4 (years old)," Nunnink said. "I got into it from Star Wars — I won’t lie — but yeah, I've grown to love it. My coaches are amazing, so it's really just kind of fueled my passion. I am fencing in college and would like to continue fencing for the rest of my life."
Ivanova said there’s always a surge in interest in fencing around the Olympics, especially when the U.S. team does well as it did in Paris last summer, so she hopes curious Kansas Citians will check out the competition.
"We'll be very busy, but it will be fantastic, it will be bright, and they'll be dynamic," Ivanova said of the NAC. "There will be a lot of light and excitement and screams and touches — and it'll be packed. It's absolutely free. Everyone can come. You don't have to have an appointment. You don't need the tickets. Everyone can come and watch."
Nunnink and McMillian will compete in the men’s Division I foil at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning.
Kiefer, Scruggs and Weintraub compete in the women’s Division I foil at 8:30 a.m. on Friday with other Olympians and former world champions scattered across the other competitions. The complete schedule is below:
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