To The Source:
It was interesting to read in The Source a report from Dr. Cora Christian that the territory is competing in the sport of fencing at the quadrennial Pan American Games, currently under way in Winnipeg, Canada.
Two weeks ago, fencers from the three active clubs in the territory — The Blades Fencing Club of St. Thomas-St. John, the St. John Fencing Club and the Knights Fencing Club on St. Croix — spent a week training at the 2nd annual summer camp hosted by The Blades, working under a former champion fencer who has coached world-class athletes for decades.
In June, six fencers from The Blades and The St. John club represented the territory at an open, "friendly" Olympic Festival of multiple sports in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico — each individual paying his/her own travel costs to do so. The territory was not represented at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Fencing Championships held in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, the week preceding the festival, nor was it represented at the CAC Fencing Congress meeting held in conjunction with that event.
As the president of The Blades, which has an active membership of more than 20 fencers, and on behalf of fencers on all three islands, I must ask: Who is representing the territory in fencing at the Pan Am Games? By whom and on what basis did the person/persons get selected to represent the Virgin Islands? The Blades received no information about any plans for the territory to participate in fencing at the Pan Am Games, no information about the competitive selection process, if there was one.
Our three clubs represent all of the active fencers residing in the territory but three — the president of the V.I. Fencing Federation and the two fencers he coaches. In early 1998, The Blades wrote repeatedly to the federation and the V.I. Olympic Committee requesting information about the competitive process to determine who would represent the territory at the quadrennial CAC Games a year ago in Venezuela. We never received any response in writing. We learned that the persons selected arbitrarily by the federation to go to Venezuela were the two individuals coached by the federation president: the nephews of the foreign secretary of the federation (who has resided on the mainland for many years). Only after we repeatedly raised objections to the absence of a fair and equitable competitive selection process was a member of the Blades, again arbitrarily, added to the delegation. He did the best of the V.I. fencers at the CAC games, by the way.
The federation's purpose is to promote the sport of fencing throughout the Virgin Islands, particularly among its youth. It has blatantly ignored its own bylaws for years and has yet to hold elections more than three years after the last-elected officers' terms expired, despite repeated objections in writing from The Blades. It thwarted the intent of the Olympic Committee to provide funds for Blades and St. John club fencers to travel to Puerto Rico last month. It was noticeable by its absence at our fencing camps both last year and this. On what basis, we wonder, has it determined who represents the territory's fencers at the Pan Am Games?
Joyce Bolanos
President, The Blades Fencing Club Inc. of St. Thomas-St. John
