Harvard founded the first collegiate fencing team in the United States in 1888.[1] The team has captured seven individual NCAA titles.
Eli Dershwitz (saber) was the seventh Harvard fencer to compete in the Olympics when he fenced for Team USA at the 2016 Rio Olympics, with the prior two having been Emily Cross '09 (Team USA; she won a silver medal in team foil) and Noam Mills '12 (Team Israel; épée), who both competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.[2][3] Cross and Mills were the first Harvard University female fencers to qualify for the Olympics.[4][5]
On November 16, 2020, former longtime Harvard Crimson fencing coach Peter Brand was arrested and charged under federal law with accepting over $1.5 million in bribes to arrange for the two sons of Maryland business Jie (Jack) Zhao to be admitted to the university as fencing recruits.[8][9][10] Zhao was arrested and charged with making the bribes as well.
Peter Brand and Jie Zhao were found innocent in 2022 after only 5 hours of deliberation by the jury.