Peter Westbrook
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Olympic medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Men's Fencing | |||
| Bronze | 1984 Los Angeles | Individual Sabre | |
Peter Westbrook (born April 16, 1952) is an American saber fencing champion.
Westbrook was born to an African-American father and a Japanese mother, who had met while his father was stationed at a military base in Japan. Westbrook grew up in New Jersey where he often fought at school until his mother put him in a fencing class. Dedicating his life to fencing, he won a bronze medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and won the U.S. national men's saber championship 13 times.
Since his retirement he founded the Peter Westbrook Foundation in New York City, which aims to guide inner-city youth away from gang violence through participation in fencing. One of his students from the Foundation, Keeth Smart, fenced in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. Westbrook wrote his memoirs, Harnessing Anger ISBN 1-888363-39-8, ISBN 1-888363-67-3 in which he describes turning his childhood tendency to fight into a drive to succeed at his sport.
Westbrook was inducted into the USFA Hall of Fame in 1996.
