AHS student is one of America’s most talented young fencers

By Kyle Jorrey jorrey@theacorn.com

GIFTED SWORDSMAN-Agoura junior Isaac Kim will represent the United States in the Fencing World Championships next week as one of just four members of the U.S. under 20 cadet team. The eight-day event takes place in Linz, Austria.

At 16, Isaac Kim’s passport looks more like that of an international super spy than that of a high school junior. It’s travel-worn and plastered in multi-colored stamps that commemorate each time he’s gone to a different foreign country.

Unlike most athletes, who only have to go down to the local park to find competition, Kim is a world-class fencer, and his competition is found all over the world in countries like Italy, Russia and Spain, where this medieval art of sword fighting first become popular more than 400 years ago.

As one of only four members of the 2005 U.S. National cadet team, Kim travels all over the globe to places like St. Petersburg, Vienna and Berlin to compete against other fencers in what are called World Cup events. Attending six or seven of these contests a year, along with five national events in the U.S. can be quite a demanding schedule—especially if you’re a high school junior with homework and a social life.

"It can be really grueling, really tough going to these competitions," said Kim, who attends Agoura High School. "Usually it’s just fly in, fence, and fly out. Not a lot of time for sightseeing. But it’s just what I do."

Kim first took up fencing when he was just 11, attending a beginner’s fencing class at the Thousand Oaks Community Center along with his father, mother and sister. After seeing how much he enjoyed the balance of physical and mental demands, he decided to take it one step further, and his father took him to train under former Russian national coach Misha Itkin at the Los Angeles Fencing Club.

Five years later, Kim has emerged as Itkin’s prize-student and one of the top young fencers in America. Next week he will compete for the first time in the sport’s second-biggest event behind the Olympics, the World Championships, an eight-day event featuring the best fencers in the world younger than 20.

"Sometimes I think about how quickly things have happened and it’s just weird," Kim said. "I remember a few years ago seeing the kids at national competitions who wore the world championship warmups and thinking that’s what I want. Now I’ve got (the warm-ups) hanging in my closet, ready to wear when I leave on the 19th."

But it wasn’t always this good for Kim, who for months had to deal with the frustration of losing to Itkin’s older and more experienced fencing students in a sport than cannot be perfected without hours and hours of training. At his first national competition in Austin, Texas, he lost nearly every bout.

"It was pretty demoralizing," Kim said.

Yet slowly and surely, Kim began to pick up the knowledge it requires to succeed in this game of physical chess, acquiring the moves and grasping the strategy that would complement his inherent athleticism and hand-eye coordination. Victories in national competitions soon followed.

"At 12 years old, after having fenced for only one and a half years, Isaac was already beating kids thought to be older and better than him," said Chris Kim, his father. "But it didn’t surprise me. Isaac was always very competitive in everything he did. He just will not give up. He won’t stop until he achieves what he’s after."

At the World Championships this year in Linz, Austria, Kim is hoping for a spot in the top 32 in the individual event, and an even a better showing in the team competition. More than 1,000 fencers will be competing in several different categories depending on the weapon—foil, saber or épée. Kim’s event is the men’s foil.

"I’m not that nervous yet because I’m just so happy about getting to go," Kim said. "Getting to this competition is why I started fencing in the first place."

Unlike many of the global events he attends with just his teammates and coach, this one will be for the whole family—a chance for the Kims to spend some quality time together and see Isaac chase down his dreams.

"We’re always there to support him in any way we can," Chris Kim said. "On this trip, he’ll have the whole family behind him."

With college not far away, Kim hopes his success in fencing will land him at an Ivy League university like Harvard or Yale—where his skills can get him admitted, but won’t earn him an athletic scholarship. After that, he’d like to earn a spot on the U.S. Olympics team, where the average age is 24.

"I’ll continue fencing through college and see where I’m at," Kim said. "If I’m not close to being on the Olympic team by then, I don’t see myself going much farther with it."

For his father, young Isaac has already accomplished enough to make all the dollars, flight miles and late-night trips to LAX worth it.

"I’m extremely happy with what he’s accomplished in fencing so far. If he quit today, it’s all been worth it," Chris Kim said. "All the traveling, all the experience he’s gotten with different cultures, all the friends he’s made from all over the United States . . . It’s just done so much for who he is. It’s really broadened his horizons and at the same time given us a chance to spend a lot of quality time together as a father and son."