Fencer on top of the world at lowest point on Earth

While there are several enormously talented athletes at Columbia, how many can claim to be champions of the world? Only one. Nzingha Prescod, a freshman fencer, recently won the gold medal in the foil category at the Junior World Championships of fencing, held at the Dead Sea Resort in Jordan. She didn’t stop there, however, and was also part of the American foil contingent that won the silver medal in the team event.

Currently ranked as the top senior foilist in the USA according to the rolling point calculations, Prescod has made a resounding impact this season. The top recruit in the nation, she fenced at the Senior World Championships in Paris in November and finished 32nd. For Columbia, she was the top finisher at the Dallas North American Cup, finishing second in senior women’s foil, and she went 16-2 at the 2011 Ivies to earn herself first team all-Ivy recognition, as well as the Most Outstanding Rookie award.

Interestingly enough, the beginning of Prescod’s fencing career is one that may surprise many.

“At the Peter Westbrook Foundation my mom read about this organization that Peter Westbrook founded, and their goal was to get inner-city kids who wouldn’t usually be exposed to fencing to participate for free,” Prescod said. “If they saw you had potential they would give you a scholarship to go to the Fencers Club for free.”

The Fencers Club, an illustrious fencing organization founded in 1883, is the oldest continuously existing organization in the world dedicated purely to fencing.

Prescod did indeed have the required potential, and joined the Fencers Club at age nine. When the choice for college came, the ties to the club were so strong that Columbia’s location made it the obvious choice.

“This is the whole package, I get my education and I get to train at my club,” she said. “If it weren’t Columbia it would be NYU—I didn’t want to switch coaches or anything like that.”

However, the Brooklyn native has traveled across the world because of fencing. She has been to eight overseas competitions since November, most recently the trip to Jordan. Prescod was content with her fencing at the Dead Sea Resort, the lowest point on Earth.

“My overall performance wasn’t the best, because in the team event I kinda messed up—but I was really happy with the individual,” she said.

Daria Schneider, CC’ 10 and the interim head coach of Columbia fencing, has been extremely impressed by the freshman.

“She’s incredibly hard working,” Schneider said. “I was talking to her coach one time and I asked him what he thought set her apart, and he said that any time he ever suggested anything extra to do, he always saw her immediately implementing that or doing it right away. He has a group of students he works very closely with, and he always holds her up as the example of how to train and an example of work ethic.”

According to Schneider, Prescod also helps add confidence to her team.

“She’s a really solid presence, and a very consistent performer,” she continued. “She’s going to give you her best performance all the time, and win most of her bouts.”

Prescod’s coach at the Fencers Club, Buckie Leach, is extremely well regarded in the fencing world, and was the first person to coach an American fencing world champion. He was an Olympic fencing coach in 1996 and 2000.

Leach knows Prescod’s development better than most and still remembers his first encounter with Prescod eight years ago.

“She was a nice kid and she had fun fencing,” Leach said. “She was a very good natured young athlete. When I first started working with her I kept having to tell her ‘don’t lean against the wall, don’t sit down’, and one day she just became an incredibly hard worker and was training all the time to the point that I had to tell her to take breaks.”

Leach was with the rookie in Jordan for Worlds, and saw first-hand how her mentality had changed from the Senior World Championships in 2010.

“Last year she was nervous, this year she fenced like she wanted to win,” he said. “Last year it was more about not wanting to lose, and she was less confident. This year it was clear she wanted to win and she was able to use her whole game.”

Columbia sophomore co-captain D’Meca Homer is Prescod’s foil teammate and holds her fellow foilist in extremely high regard.

“I’ve known Nzingha since we were 10 years old and over the years she’s become a great model for me in terms of her character and attitude,” Homer said in an email. “Anyone that meets her will remark on her nonchalant attitude that really works to her benefit on the strip and in times of pressure. She actually is the most hardworking, dedicated individual that I know. She practices every day downtown for several hours into the night and then still comes back up to Columbia to get her work done.”

Homer also highlighted Prescod’s helpful character.

“The only weakness that I can think of is that she’s so nice that oftentimes in an effort to help out she puts other people’s needs before hers, when she should be putting hers before others,” she added.

Another Columbia foilist, Nicole Ross, the 2010 NCAA foil champion who is currently taking the year off to train for the London Olympics, is one of Prescod’s teammates for the Senior USA Foil team, and also echoed the sentiment of admiration. Ross and Prescod have been on several teams together, including the Fencers Club team, the 2008 and 2009 Junior Worlds teams, the 2009 Pan American Championships team, and the 2010 Senior Worlds team.

“I’m about three years older than her, and I’ve known her ever since she’s been fencing at the Fencers Club,” Ross said. “She’s so much fun, she always has a positive attitude. She’s a great competitor, and even though she’s younger than me she’s someone I can look up to as one of the greatest fencers in the country.”

“I really wanted her to come to Columbia, of course, so that we’d still be able to see each other and train at the club,” Ross continued. “I knew she’d get along well and be able to adapt with the rest of the team. She’s also going to be a huge force in NCAA fencing.”

Her impact in collegiate fencing was already felt this year, but there will be a wait before Lions fans can hope to see her in action, as she is taking her sophomore year off to train for London 2012.
Prescod highlighted the size of the challenge that lies ahead.

“Senior competitions in general are so much more intense because in juniors you’ll find a few pushovers that you can play around with and still win—but in seniors everyone is so good and you have to be at your best or you’re not going to make it to the next day,” Prescod said.

While most Columbia undergraduates will be worrying about the end of the semester because finals draw ever closer, Prescod is off to Shanghai for a senior competition that counts towards Olympic qualification. After that, she will be competing in Seoul and St. Petersburg as she looks to become an Olympian.