Soren Thompson

Thompson attended Princeton University.[1] Fencing at Princeton under Maître Michel Sebastiani, Thompson was the 2001 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Épée Champion, came in 2nd in 2002, and was 3rd in 2005.[12][13][14][15]

His other NCAA awards include First Team All-American in 2001–02 and 2005, and Honorary All-American in 2003, First Team All-Ivy in 2001–03 and 2005, and Academic All-Ivy in 2005.

In 2005, Princeton awarded Thompson the William Winston Roper Trophy, its highest honor for a male athlete.[16]

Thompson won the US Junior National Championship and the US Junior Olympics Championship in 1999 in épée.

He won individual gold medals in men’s épée at both the 2011 US Fencing National Championships and the 2018 US Fencing National Championships.[17][18]

Thompson won the team bronze medal in the 1999 Junior World Fencing Championships.[1] The following year, he came in 11th individually at the 2000 Junior World Fencing Championships.[1]

Thompson took 8th in the 2003 World Fencing Championships in Havana, Cuba, defeating top seed Ivan Kovacs of Hungary (15–14).[19][20]

He came in 26th in the 2006 World Fencing Championships in épée, in Turin, Italy.[21] At the 2011 World Fencing Championships, Thompson made it as far as the Round of 16 (where he lost to 2011 world champion Paolo Pizzo of Italy) in Catania, Italy.[22]

At the 2012 World Fencing Championships in Kyiv, Ukraine, in April 2012, Thompson won the gold medal for the team épée event, as part of the U.S. Men's Epee Team that won the first Senior World Championship fencing title for American men in history.[21][17][23][24] The US team defeated six-time reigning World Champion France in the finals.[24]

While attending Princeton, Thompson took a year off of school to focus on his training prior to the 2004 Athens Olympics. [6] He qualified for both the individual and team épée competitions in Athens.[6]

Thompson fenced for the US in the 2004 Olympics at 23 years of age, taking 7th place in the individual épée competition, the best US result in the event since 1956 and at the time the second-best of all-time.[4][6][7] He defeated Paris Inostroza of Chile in Round Two, 13-12.[25] In the Round of 16, he defeated Alfredo Rota of Italy, the No. 1 ranked épée fencer in the world and 2000 Olympics team epee gold medal winner, 15–13.[26] He then lost 15–11 to the 2000 Olympic gold medalist Pavel Kolobkov of Russia, who went on to win the 2004 Olympic silver medal.[27] Thompson became the first American to reach the men’s épée quarterfinals in nearly 50 years.[28]

He also took 5th place with the US épée squad in the team competition at the 2004 Olympics.[6]

Thompson sought to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and was having the best season of his career. He suffered a serious injury, however, a fully torn off-the-bone right hamstring, before he was able to qualify. He therefore retired – temporarily, it turned out – from competitive fencing.[6][7]

Soren Thompson in 2013

Thompson came out of retirement in 2010, and trained before and after his full-time job.[6] He left his job in April 2011 to focus exclusively on fencing.[7] He decided to not have a coach, as he didn’t find what he wanted in a coach in New York City, and knew what he wanted to do, and felt he just needed to execute."[7]

He qualified and represented the United States in the 2012 London Olympics. Thompson was eliminated in the round of 32 in the individual épée competition by Jörg Fiedler of Germany, the reigning European champion, finishing in 19th place.[6][29] No team men's épée event was held at the 2012 Olympics.[23]

Thompson finished the 2012 season ranked 7th in the world in individual épée.[6]

Thompson competed on the U.S. men's épée team at the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. They finished fourth.[5] He subsequently won a team gold medal at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.[1]

He won individual and team gold medals at both the 2011 Pan American Fencing Championships in Reno, Nevada, and the 2012 Pan American Fencing Championships in Cancún, Mexico.[17][1] Thompson then won a team silver medal at the 2013 Pan American Championships.[1]

Thompson, who is Jewish, won a team silver medal at the 2005 17th Maccabiah Games in Israel.[30][31][32]

He is a senior North American Cup (NAC) champion. In 2010, Thompson won a bronze medal at the North American Cup A.[1] In 2012, he won a silver medal at the December North American Cup.[1]

Thompson came in 2nd, winning the silver medal, at the 2004 Buenos Aires Senior Épée World Cup.[33][1] He won a team silver medal at the 2012 Legnano World Cup, and a team bronze medal at the 2012 Tallinn World Cup.[1] The following year he again won a team silver medal at the 2013 Legnano World Cup.[1]