Maia Mei Weintraub (born October 24, 2002) is an American foil fencer. She qualified to represent the U.S. at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
| Maia Weintraub | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 24, 2002 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Sport | |
| Country |  United States |
| Sport | Fencing |
| Weapon | Foil |
| Hand | right-handed |
| Club | Fencing Academy of Philadelphia |
Biography
editWeintraub was born on October 24, 2002, and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[1] She is Jewish.[2] Weintraub attended Friends Select School in Philadelphia.[3] Her first experience in fencing came at age nine, when she joined the Fencing Academy of Philadelphia at the suggestion of her uncles, both former fencers.[2] A foil fencer, she won the Junior Olympics tournament for the 2017–18 season.[4]
Weintraub won a U.S. national championship in April 2019, becoming the youngest person to accomplish the feat in nine years.[5] Later that year, she placed third at the Junior World Cup and was in the top-32 at the Senior World Cup competition.[5] She placed in the top 16 at the 2020 Kazan World Cup and was the runner-up at the U.S. national championship for the 2020–21 season, also finishing eighth in the individual event at the 2021 Junior World Championships and second in the team event.[4][5][6] She traveled to Tokyo for the 2020 Summer Olympics (held in 2021) as an alternate for the U.S. team, although she did not compete.[2]
Weintraub was ranked second in the world in the junior category and 64th in the senior category by August 2021.[6] She began attending Princeton University in 2021, where she fenced for the Tigers; that season, she won the Ivy League, NCAA regional and national foil championships while being named first-team All-Ivy League and first-team All-American.[6] She participated at the 2022 Junior and Senior World Championships, winning gold in the junior category in the team event while winning silver in the team event in the senior category.[4][7]
In the 2022–23 college fencing season, Weintraub repeated as a first-team All-Ivy League and All-American selection, winning the Ivy League title while placing second at the NCAA regional tournament and third in the national championship.[6] She won the USA Fencing national championship in 2023.[4] She later qualified to represent the U.S. at the 2024 Summer Olympics, competing in the women's team foil event.[3]
References
edit- ^ "Maia Weintraub". USA Fencing.
- ^ a b c Rogelberg, Sasha (April 20, 2022). "Philadelphia Fencer Wins International Fencing Championship". The Jewish Exponent.
- ^ a b D'Onofrio, Mike; Millington, Maxwell (June 4, 2024). "Philadelphia fencer to compete in Paris Summer Olympics". Axios.com.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c d Team USA Fencing – Olympic Games – Paris 2024 – Media Guide (PDF). USA Fencing. 2024. pp. 29–30.
- ^ a b c Bradley, Michael (March 12, 2020). "Meet Maia Weintraub, Philly's Teenage Fencing Phenom". Philadelphia.
- ^ a b c d "Maia Weintraub". Princeton Tigers.
- ^ Gotlieb, Andy (April 8, 2022). "Philadelphia Fencer Wins Gold". The Jewish Exponent.