Cross Solidifies Spot on Olympic Squad

Emily Cross is the best female fencer Harvard has ever seen.

As impressive as it sounds, that description pales in comparison with Cross’s other accomplishments. The rising senior, who is currently ranked 11th in the world in the foil weapon, is one of the greatest female foilists in United States history.

“She’s just exceptional,” Crimson coach Peter Brand says. “American fencing has never seen anything like this. In foil, she is the best we’ve had in the modern era.”

Last week, Cross, who is currently the top-ranked foilist in the nation, was named to Team USA for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She is the first female fencer to make the Olympics from Harvard.

Olympic qualification is a cumulative process, but strong finishes in the summer of 2007 put Cross in great position to secure a place on the team early in the season. She attained a No. 7 international ranking last June and has not fallen below No. 12 in the world since then. Even though many expected her to make Team USA, Cross was still enthralled when the selection process was finalized.

“The official announcement of the team was an incredible experience,” Cross says. “It was just such a rush and a relief to have everything finalized...It definitely is a dream come true to make the Olympic team.”

Cross has thrived overseas and dominated in America consistently over the past few years. She won the Under-20 Junior World Fencing Championships in 2005 and 2006 and was the youngest foilist named to Team USA for the 2007 World Fencing Championships in St. Petersburg, Russia.

In the past, Cross has competed internationally and done well in the classroom simultaneously; however, she was forced to take the last year and a half off from school to devote herself fully to her Olympic dream.

“We’ve been supporting [her Olympic] quest over the last three years while she’s been at Harvard,” Brand said. “It was obvious that she needed the time to do this without the pressures of schooling.”

While still a member of the Crimson, Cross took home the individual NCAA Fencing Title in women’s foil in 2005 and helped Harvard win the NCAA Team Championship in 2006.

Cross’s team-oriented attitude will be a valuable this August when she and three other American foilists compete in the team foil event. According to Cross, the best shot she has at winning a medal is in this team competition.

“My three teammates and I have been training and working together very closely for the past few seasons, and we have a very good rapport,” Cross says. “Our styles are also very different, but they complement each other very well and make us hard to predict as a team, which I think gives us a good shot at a medal.”

Although she believes that her best chance at Olympic glory is the team event, Cross still has a shot at garnering individual success. Reaching the podium in the individual competition, however, will be very difficult since there will be experienced and higher-ranked women waiting for her. Italy, in particular, has had the women’s foil weapon in a stranglehold—four Italian women currently sit in the top six in the international standings.

“Right now it’s going to be very difficult to crack into those top four spots, which have been controlled by three Italian women who have been doing very well over the last few years,” Brand says. “For Emily to medal, she’s going to have to defeat one of them, but she’s capable of doing it.”

Valentina Vezzali, who, according to Cross, is one of the most consistently strong fencers in the history of the sport, is the star of the Italian team and won gold in the individual event in 2000 and 2004. Vezzali currently holds the No. 1 ranking in the world, but Cross defeated her the only time the two dueled.

“It was a long time ago, and I think I had the advantage of being young and having nothing to lose,” Cross says. “I think that I have the potential to beat her again, but it would definitely take everything in my arsenal to pull it out.”

To beat one of the Italian women, Cross must duel flawlessly while utilizing her greatest strength, which according to her coach and teammates is her competitive spirit and intensity.

“Her greatest asset is her competitiveness, her desire to win,” Brand says. “She’s far and beyond better at this than anyone I’ve seen before. In her case, she’s not just going out to make the team. She said ‘I’m going out to get a medal.’ And I believe her.”

Joining Cross in Beijing will be her family and even some of her blockmates and high school friends.

“I am very excited to share the experience with them,” Cross says. “I just hope I give them a good show.”

Good show or not, the event will be a once in a lifetime opportunity for all of them. At least that will be the case until the 2012 London Olympics comes around—as the youngest fencer in the top 11 of the international rankings, Cross will likely represent the United States in those games also.

—Staff writer Jake I. Fisher can be reached at jifisher@fas.harvard.edu.