"Fencing. Not a sport where you look for a lot of Americans to do well... It's not a sport that's played at as high a level here. There are a lot of fencers, and they perform in clubs, you know. But for them to come to the top is a hard thing to do.

It's tough in sports where there's not a lot of money to be made. The great athletes in this country tend to go to sports where they can get college scholarships and have a hope of a professional career. Now there are some fencing scholarships out there, not too many, but the great athletes tend not to go there, because that's not where you can get a scholarship or a pro career.

One stat that I saw was that the American fencing team is probably the brightest team, that they're all Rhodes scholars and graduate students and the rest of it, which tells you all you need to know about the quality of the competition."

-- Ron Rappaport on KPCC AirTalk, August 8, 2008.