Hamlet-native’s son continues fencing journey to Tokyo Olympics

Like any mother, Hamlet-native Demetria Goodwin tried to find a suitable extracurricular activity for her 12-year-old son, Curtis McDowald, to participate in as a kid.

She tried everything from swimming to taekwondo, tennis and even softball and basketball, but nothing quite grabbed McDowald’s interest.

Until he tried fencing.

A non-profit organization called the Peter Westbrook Foundation, named after former U.S. fencing champion and Olympic medalist Peter Westbrook, was offering fencing classes and Goodwin enrolled McDowald.

“It was designed to be a very inclusive non-profit organization — it was designed for inner city youth and people who otherwise wouldn’t have the means to enter a sport like fencing,” McDowald said.

Living in Queens in New York City, Goodwin would drive McDowald to the three-hour classes in Manhattan every weekend, but then as he started to progress in the sport, he was invited to stay longer for more intermediate and advanced classes on fencing footwork and competitive techniques.

Within a few months, McDowald said he was entering in competitions on the national circuit and eventually won his first title shortly thereafter.

“Fencing was something he took to and it took to him,” Goodwin said. “Once I introduced him to it, he just gravitated towards it. I don’t want to say he was a natural, but he did pick it up (quickly).”

Currently, the 25-year-old McDowald is ranked as the No. 2 epee fencer in the U.S. and is also No. 27 in the world. His accomplishments and accolades in fencing have helped him earn a spot to compete for Team USA in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.

“Making the Olympic team became a goal for me very shortly after I started fencing,” McDowald said. “I wanted to use fencing as a vehicle to get into better schools and network with interesting people. I like to do things at a high level, so with the Olympics, I wanted to see how far I could take it. It felt amazing to accomplish a goal that you’ve had since you were child, but this was something I’ve expected for a very long time and I’m just really happy to see it come to fruition.”

McDowald is set to compete in the men’s epee fencing individual and team competitions while in Tokyo.

There are three primary weapons in the sport of fencing: foil, epee and saber. Epee, which is McDowald’s weapon, is the largest and heaviest of the three types. In epee fencing, the target consists of the entire body from head-to-toe. McDowald said there are no rules of engagement and no right-of-way. Whoever hits first, scores a point, and if both fencers hit at the same time within a fraction of seconds, they both get the points.

“Unlike the other two weapons, epee is much freer from rules, whereas foil and saber are much more constricted with their rules,” McDowald said.

The opening ceremonies are on Friday, while the men’s individual epee competition is on Saturday and the team epee event is on July 29, but Goodwin and the rest of McDowald’s family won’t be able to travel to Tokyo to support him in-person.

Goodwin, who previously graduated from Richmond Senior High School, said they had tickets last year, but, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic postponed the 2020 Olympics from last summer to this summer.

“We knew that if they were going to have it in 2021, we were hearing that they most likely weren’t going to allow spectators from the United States and from other different countries,” Goodwin said.

However, USA Fencing and NBC have arranged a watch party in Orlando for families to attend. Goodwin said they will be in Orlando from July 23-27 to watch McDowald in the individual event, but they will have their own family watch party in New York for the team competition on July 29 and 30.

“We’re just lucky that he’s healthy and able to go,” Goodwin said.

The Japanese government and the IOC banned foreign fans from attending back in March, but still originally hoped to allow 10,000 local fans to attend. But, with the recent rise in positive cases due to the Delta variant, the Japanese government issued a new COVID-19 state of emergency in recent weeks, thus banning any and all fans from the Olympics.

But, fans or no fans, McDowald is just grateful to have the chance to finally realize his Olympic dream.

“There’s going to be a lot of changes to the schedule as far as what we’re going to be allowed to do and see, but I’m really just happy to have the opportunity to compete,” McDowald said. “I’m happy that the Japanese government and the IOC are still hosting the Olympic games. That is a dream come true for all of us, and we’re just happy to be able to get the chance to compete and that’s the most important thing to me.”