This Queens Athlete Is Headed To His 1st Olympic Games

JAMAICA, QUEENS — Growing up, Curtis McDowald made weekly trips from his home in Jamaica, Queens to fencing practice in Central Harlem — an hour-plus trek, on top of hours of training, that's helped him get to Tokyo for this year's Olympic Games.

McDowald, a first-time Olympian who's ranked second in the United States and 27th worldwide, will represent the U.S. in épée fencing, one of the three types of fencing alongside foil and sabre.

The 25-year-old now spars in midtown's New York Fencer's Club, but at age 12 he got his start at the Peter Westbrook Foundation (PWF), a nonprofit founded by the six-time Olympian, who was the first Black fencer to win a medal for Team USA.

Training at the PWF was McDowald's mother, Demetria Goodwin's, idea.

Goodwin, who works at Riker's Island, says she "didn't want to see my child locked up," and quickly got him away from fights at his Hollis, Queens middle school to sparring matches on the fencing floor — where he excelled.

But, McDowald's battle to make it as a Black man in a white sport has not been without challenges.

At age 14 he was suspended from the Fencer's Club for borrowing an equipment bag, and the intensity of his training and presence — he's known to yell with excitement and trash talk during practice — has made him a target at times by the sport's so-called "old guard, crust fans of an ancient, insular sport" (as writer Bradford William Davis puts it in a recent GQ profile).

"This is a lily-white sport, make no bones about it,” Peter Westbrook told CBS2 last month.

For McDowald, his experiences as a Black man and fencer, while not things his white opponents have had to face, have shaped his fencing strategy.

“We [Black men] walk around dealing with a certain level of perpetual pressure (that) white people don't understand," McDowald told Davis a couple of weeks ago.

“I'm very confident in the technical and tactical strategies [of fencing], but...there's a psychological level I can go above them. Because I don't have the same fears," he said.

And McDowald isn't alone in a burgeoning class of Black elite male fencers. In fact, one third of this year's Team USA men's fencing team got its start at the PWF, including Cuban-born épéeist Yeisser Ramirez, who will compete in Tokyo alongside McDowald.

McDowald will be among the 621 members of the United States Olympic team at the Tokyo games. His first Olympic match is slated for Friday, July 30.

A full schedule for the Tokyo games can be found here.