Page 7 - RU Robert Wood Johnson Medicine • Summer 2020

Kamali Thompson ’21 Primed to Fence on U.S. Olympic Team
ASthe coronavirus pandemic raced across the world this spring, it changed lives
and dreams. National champion fencer Kamali Thompson ’21 was well positioned to gain
a place on the United States Olympic team, when the announcement came postponing the games to 2021.
“I was devastated,” she says. “After so many sacrifices and with the end in sight, it was hard to grasp that one more year would be required to reach my goal. However, global health is a more important issue, and everyone needs to stay healthy. My goal is to compete in the 2021 Olympic Games and celebrate the end of the pandemic with the rest of the world."
The games will crown a 17-year journey that began when Thompson was in her first year at Teaneck High School. Although dance had been her childhood love, her mother urged her to join the fencing club, hoping that skill in the less-well-known field would be more likely to lead to a college scholarship. “I’d never seen fencing, much less the weapons!” Thompson says. “But I agreed—reluctantly.”
Thompson was only 12 when she started high school. Above all, she wanted to blend in, she says, “but Mom’s values came first.” However, she soon found that she enjoyed not only the sport but also the camaraderie of fellow fencers, who were in honors classes as she was.
As Thompson progressed, Teaneck’s head fencing coach, Pat Lawrence, suggested she join the Peter Westbrook Foundation, a prestigious fencing club in New York City that encourages young people from underserved communities to learn and compete in the sport. For two years, Thompson regularly took an afternoon bus to the city to work with coaches including Westbrook, himself a six-time Olympian and 1986 medalist. Her aspirations and skills caught fire, and by graduation she was winning at the state level.
By Kate O’Neill
Robert Wood Johnson | MEDICINE 5
PHOTOS BY JOHN EMERSON