Rebecca Ward

Rebecca (Becca) Ward is an US sabre fencer. Becca Ward won the gold medal at the sabre 2006 World Fencing Championships after beating Mariel Zagunis 15-11 in the final. A member of the Oregon Fencing Alliance, she trains with Ed Korfanty and has won a record number of world titles for a female sabre fencer in 2006; Cadet, Junior, Junior Team and Senior.

As of June 2007, Becca Ward is is ranked first in the world in both Official and World Cup rankings for senior women sabre fencers. As of July 2007, Ward is the number one ranked senior women's sabre fencer in the US women's sabre and on the FIE Rankings.

Update: Olympic Bronze Medals

Becca lost to fellow OFA club member Mariel Zagunis in the semi-finals of the 2008 Olympic Games but was able to defeat Russian Sofia Velikaya in the bronze medal bout to earn the Beijing Olympics Bronze Medal in Women's Sabre.  She was the final component of the US medal sweep as Zagunis took gold, repeating her Athens 2004 performance, and Sada Jacobson took the silver.

In the team event, the US team was upset in the semifinals but rallied to take the Bronze.

Off to College: Becca Ward started at Duke University on a full fencing scholarship in the fall of 2008.

References:

Fencing.Net

Fencing on Wikipedia

International Fencing Federation

The sabre differs from the other modern fencing swords, the epee and foil, in that it is possible to score with the edge of the blade; for this reason, sabreur movements and attacks are very fast. For the other two weapons, valid touches are only scored using the point of the blade. Like foil, sabre uses the convention of right-of-way to determine priority.

The term sabreur refers to a fencer who fences with a sabre. Sabre was the last weapon in fencing to make the transition over to using electrical equipment. This occurred in 1988, 31 years after Foil and 52 years after Epee. The target area originates from dueling sabre training. To attack the opponent's leg would allow him to "slip" that leg back and attack one's exposed arm or head given that the higher line attack will outreach the low line.

A common misconception concerning the origin of sabre's target area is that the legs are removed as targets due to sabre's origin as a cavalry weapon. Essentially, this line of reasoning goes, the legs of a horseman were not a valid target in war, since cutting the leg of a man riding a horse would not stop that man from continuing his charge. This myth has largely been refuted and several older texts demonstrate low sabre parries to protect the mount's flanks and the fencer's legs

At sabre, it is generally easier to attack than to and high-level international sabre fencing is often very fast and very simple, although when required, top sabreurs do display an extended repertoire of tactical devices. In response to the relatively high speed of sabre fencing, the rules for sabre were changed to prohibit the forward cross-over. Thus, the fleche attack is no longer permissible, so sabre fencers have instead begun to use a flying lunge. Similarly, "running attacks" have also been eliminated.