2026 Junior Olympics Day 3 Recap: Adapting on the Fly in Kansas City
Published
Day 3 of the 2026 Junior Olympic Championships in Kansas City produced six national champions across individual and team events.
Day 3 of the 2026 Junior Olympic Championships in Kansas City produced six national champions across individual and team events.
Individual national champions
- Junior Women's Epee — Scarlett Lee (New York Fencing Academy)
- Cadet Women's Saber — Martina Fernandez (Nellya Fencers)
- Cadet Men's Foil — Bradley Li (Star Fencing Academy)
Team national champions
- Junior Team Women's Foil — Super Mario & the Golden Mushroom (Audrey Feng, Daying Liu, Emilia Shen and Emma Yang)
- Junior Team Men's Epee — Lumberloon Freeze (Boden Lai, Seth Sverdlov, Maxwell Tse and Alex Wolfe)
- Junior Team Men's Saber — Spartak (Tyler Im, Wyatt Kozloff, Nathan Qiu and Jeffrey Tao)
Cadet Women's Saber
Martina Fernandez won Cadet Women's Saber. Cadet saber at the Junior Olympics is one of the most competitive brackets on the domestic calendar, because qualification funnels the strongest fencers from every division into one field.
Team saber at the JOs
Spartak took Junior Team Men's Saber. Team events use relay scoring — nine legs to 45 touches, each fencer picking up where the previous one left off. It changes how a bout feels: a fencer can be handed a deficit and still swing the match, and a lead can evaporate in a single leg. For club fencers, team competition is often the first time the result depends on teammates rather than only on themselves.
Why "adapting on the fly" is the right theme
Every champion on this list won bouts against opponents they had not studied, under referees they had not met, on a schedule that shifted through the day. The fencers who handle that well are usually the ones whose training includes varied bouting partners rather than a narrow routine.
Related reading on Saber Nation
- 2026 Junior Olympics Day 4 recap
- 2026 Junior Olympics Day 2 recap
- All USA Fencing news for saber fencers
Train with us in Bethesda
Saber Nation is a saber-only club at 4701 Sangamore Road, Suite LL2, Bethesda, MD 20816. See our saber fencing classes in Bethesda or contact us.
Official USA Fencing source: 2026 Junior Olympics Day 3 Recap: Adapting on the Fly and Finding Confidence in Kansas City — published January 11, 2026.
Training options
Continue with 2026 Junior Olympics Day 4 recap or More USA Fencing news or Saber fencing classes in Bethesda, MD.