Sada Jacobson
She is the 2008 Olympic Individual Sabre silver medalist and 2004 Olympic Individual Sabre bronze medalist.
Background
Jacobson is a daughter of David Jacobson, 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 and world-class fencer Jackie Jacobson.
Jacobson swam competitively for 2 years in high school. She postponed her college career to train full-time for the 2004 Summer Olympics.
She graduated with a history degree from Morse College, Yale University. She began law school at the University of Michigan in the fall of 2008.
She has been coached by Arkady Burdan of Nellya Fencers, and Henry Hartunian at Yale.
Fencing career
College & Under-19 career
Jacobson was a 2-time NCAA sabre champion for Yale University (2001 and 2002). She won an NCAA Championship and earned 1st-team All-America honors as a freshman at Yale, after a 30-0 regular season. In addition, she was the 2001 Under-19 National Champion.
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.
Pan American Games
Jacobson won the gold medal in sabre at the 2003 Pan American Games.
National Championships
Jacobson won the US women's sabre championship in 2004 and 2006.
She was ranked # 1 in the US from June 2003 through October 2005.
Number 1 World Ranking
In 2004 she became the first U.S. That year was the first in which women's individual sabre was contested at an Olympic Games.
At the Olympics, Jacobson beat Miclin Faez 15-4, in the round of 16.
She beat Leonore Perrus in the quarterfinals 15-11 to advance to the semifinals. On August 17, she won the bronze medal by beating Catalina Gheorhitoaia 15-7.
In the round of 16, she trailed Ukrainian fencer Olga Kharlan 8-5, but came back to win 15-13. In the quarterfinals, she beat Elena Khomrova 15-11.
Entering the semifinals, all three American fencers were still in the tournament.
In the semifinals, Jacobson again trailed 8-5 at the break, but came back with 10 out of the final 13 touches in the bout, and defeated Sofiya Velikaya 15-11, assuring Jacobson of at least the silver medal. In the final, Jacobson lost to defending gold medalist, Mariel Zagunis, 15-8, and won the silver medal..
The United States swept the event, with Zagunis winning the gold, Jacobson the silver, and Rebecca Ward the bronze. When the three medal winners finished their group hug, a gentleman in the front row, moved by the show of emotion, reached into his pocket and produce a neatly folded white handkerchief, handing it down to Jacobson.
Moments later Jacobson thought, "Maybe I should have kept it." But by then the hanky, full of her tears, was back in the pocket of former president George H.W. Bush.
In the women's sabre team event, the US was heavily favored to win the team event.
The Ukranians, seeded fifth, defeated the favored US team 45-39, denying them a gold medal, and placing them in the bronze medal bout against France. The USA team rebounded from their semifinal loss by defeating the French team 45-38, so Jacobson had a bronze medal to go with her silver medal from the individual competition.
Post-fencing career
Jacobson indicated that she intended to retire from competitive fencing after the 2008 Olympic competitions concluded, and focus on law school, and starting life with her fiance. She began her studies at Michigan Law School in 2008. She and Brendan Brunelle Bâby, who graduated from Pennsylvania State University where he competed in épée and was a member of three NCAA championship teams, were married in May 2009 in Atlanta at the Nellya Fencers Club, where she had trained for both the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics.
Awards
Jacobson, who is Jewish, received the Marty Glickman Award for the Outstanding Jewish Scholastic Athlete of the Year in both 2002 and 2005.
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 inducted in the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, which recognizes outstanding Jewish athletes.
References
Jacobson and U.S.