Aug. 3 Preview: Women’s Saber Team

PARIS, France — It’s a fitting coincidence: Team USA is sending its youngest team to compete in the newest fencing event in the Olympics.

It’s time for the Women’s Saber Team event, an eight-team competition for gold on the penultimate day of fencing at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The Women’s Saber Team event is fencing’s youngest event — contested for only the fourth time at the Olympic Games. Team USA has medaled twice: bronze in both 2008 and 2016.

The U.S. team of Elizabeth Tartakovsky (Livingston, N.J.), Magda Skarbonkiewicz (Portland, Ore.), Tatiana Nazlymov (Bethesda, Md.) and Maia Chamberlain (Menlo Park, Calif.) has an average age of 20, making them the youngest squad in the eight-team tournament. (The next youngest are Algeria and Hungary, each with an average age of 24.)

But while they’re young, these athletes are also experienced and hungry. This same quartet is coming fresh off a gold medal at the 2024 Zonal Championships in June in Lima, Peru. The team defeated Canada in the gold medal final, 45-36, to take the crown.

On the strength of that result and consistently high finishes all season, the United States enters the eight-team tournament as the fifth seed, with a matchup against No. 4 Korea awaiting in the first round. 

• This is the fourth time in Olympic history that the Women’s Saber Team event is being contested. The event was first held at Beijing 2008. Because of an IOC rule limiting the number of fencing events to 10, neither Women’s Saber Team nor Men’s Epee Team were contested at London 2012. It was also contested at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2021. Beginning with the Tokyo Games, the 10-event rule was dropped meaning all 12 events are being contested in Paris.

• The United States has medaled twice in this event:

  • Rio 2016, Bronze: Monica Aksamit, Ibtihaj Muhammad, Dagmara Wozniak, Mariel Zagunis 

  • Beijing 2008, Bronze: Sada Jacobson, Becca Ward, Mariel Zagunis

All bouts are streamed live on Peacock and NBCOlympics.com (streaming schedule), with the quarterfinal round also expected to air on the E! Network. Bronze and gold medal bouts are expected to air on the E! Network and stream live on Peacock.

Women’s Saber Team

Find the full bracket here, and broadcast/livestream info here.

• Quarterfinals: Team USA vs. Korea, 7 a.m. ET (1 p.m. Paris)
• 5-8 Classification Bouts: 8:30 a.m. ET (2:30 p.m. Paris)
• Semifinals: 9:20 a.m. ET (3:20 p.m. Paris)
• 5-6, 7-8 Classification Bouts: 10:10 a.m. ET (4:10 p.m. Paris)
• Bronze Medal Match: 1 p.m. ET (7 p.m. Paris)
• Gold Medal Match: 2 p.m. ET (8 p.m. Paris)