Nzingha Prescod
American fencer
Nzingha Prescod | |
---|---|
Personal information | |
Born |
(
1992-08-14
)
August 14, 1992
(age
30)
Brooklyn, New York |
Height | 1.60 m (5 ft 3 in) |
Weight | 59 kg (130 lb) |
Sport | |
Country | United States |
Sport | Fencing |
Weapon | Foil |
Hand | right-handed |
Club | Peter Westbrook Foundation |
Head coach | Buckie Leach |
FIE ranking | current ranking |
Nzingha Prescod (born August 14, 1992) is an American foil fencer , World Champion in foil at the 2008 and 2009 Cadet World Cups, bronze medalist at the 2015 World Fencing Championships , three-time medalist at the Pan American Games , and two-time Olympian. [1] [2] She has ranked as high as world # 5. [3] Prescod was selected as an athlete director on the USA Fencing Board of Directors beginning in January 2021.
Biography
Prescod is a daughter of Marva Prescod and Homer Richardson, was born in New York City, and was named after Nzingha Mbande (a 17th century queen in what is now Angola , who fought against colonization by the Portuguese Empire ). [4] [2] [5] [6] Her mother is a Vincentian lawyer. [3]
Prescod graduated from Stuyvesant High School in New York City in 2010. [4] She graduated from Columbia University in 2015, majoring in Political Science, and fencing for the Columbia Lions fencing team . [7] Fencing for Columbia, in 2010-11 she was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year, and First-Team All-Ivy League. [6] She took the following year off to train for the Olympics. [6] In 2012-13 she was again All-Ivy. [6] In her Columbia career, she was 117-19 in foil bouts. [6]
She was World Champion in foil at the 2008 and 2009 Cadet World Cups. [6] Prescod placed third in women’s foil at the 2011 Pan American Championships. [6] In 2013, Prescod became the first US women’s foil fencer to win a Grand Prix title when she won the gold medal at the Marseilla Foil Grand Prix in France. [6] She finished third in the Division I Women's Foil at the 2015 January NAC. [6]
Prescod competed in the individual women's foil event of the 2012 Summer Olympics , at 19 years of age, where Prescod was defeated 10-15 in the table of 32 by Hungary's Aida Mohamed . [2] In the team event Team USA lost to South Korea in the quarter-finals, and finished 6th after the placement matches.
She was a bronze medalist at the 2015 World Fencing Championships . Prescod fenced in the 2016 Rio Olympics at 23 years of age, and came in 11th. [8]
In 2016 Prescod was one of eight Olympians selected for a six-month internship with EY (the former Ernst & Young) through its Women Athletes Business Network. [9] As of 2020, she was working in data analytics for EY. [10]
Prescod, suffering from avascular necrosis , trained and competed for a year in increasing pain. In January 2020, facing the necessity of hip replacement surgery, Prescod announced her retirement from competition. [10]
Prescod was selected as an athlete director on the USA Fencing Board of Directors beginning on January 1, 2021, as the top vote-getter in a vote by athletes who represented the US at the Olympics or Paralympics, Pan American Games, or Senior World Championships. [3] She said that in 2020 the organization's disciplinary decisions "reeked of lenience and favorability for the offender." [3]
See also
References
- ↑ "Nzingha Prescod" . London 2012 . The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Limited. Archived from the original on July 27, 2012 . Retrieved September 17, 2012 .
- 1 2 3 "Nzingha Prescod," Team USA.
- 1 2 3 4 King, Nelson A. (December 15, 2020). "ELITE FENCER" . Caribbean Life News .
- 1 2 Koman, Tess (August 5, 2016). "13 Things You Need to Know About U.S. Olympic Fencer Nzingha Prescod" . Cosmopolitan .
- ↑ "PRESCOD Nzingha" . fie.org . International Fencing Federation . Retrieved July 6, 2020 .
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Nzingha Prescod - Fencing" . Columbia University Athletics .
- ↑ "Nzingha Prescod" . Team USA . Retrieved August 13, 2016 .
- ↑ "Nzingha Prescod" . USA Fencing .
- ↑ "EY Offers Internships to Female Olympians" . Olympians.org . World Olympians Association . August 19, 2016 . Retrieved July 6, 2020 .
- 1 2 Bowker, Paul D. (January 15, 2020). "Facing Painful Hip Condition, Fencer Nzingha Prescod Forced To Retire Just Short Of Third Olympics" . Teamusa.org . United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee . Retrieved July 7, 2020 .
External links
- Nzingha Prescod at the International Fencing Federation
- Nzingha Prescod at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
- Profile at US Fencing
- Nzingha Prescod (July 10, 2020). "An Open Letter To The USOPC & NGBs," Team USA.