Salle Auriol Seattle fencer, Jan Patterson, will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from USA Fencing during the 2024 January NAC in San Jose. The Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates Vet fencers who have shown commitment, dedication, and talent to the sport of fencing for a decade or longer.
Jan’s competitive fencing career spans over twenty-five years. He earned his first Foil National Veteran medal at the 1998 Summer Nationals, where he finished 7th. During the 1999 season, Jan finished 8th in both the March Vet NAC and Vets in Summer Nationals to make the first Vet World Team, held at Lake Balaton, Hungary. This was the first six weapon Veteran World Championships and Jan finished 24th.
Jan continued to find success, earning 32 medals on the national stage, and competing in 10 Vet World Championships through 2012. While Jan started his fencing career as a right-handed fencer, a shoulder injury after the December 2012 NAC forced Jan to start fencing left-handed. Jan recalls the switch caused a lot of head scratching during his first left-handed competition a few months later at the 2013 March NAC, where he finished 3rd. Despite switching hands, Jan continued his successful competitive career, earning an additional 29 national and international medals since 2012 as a left-handed fencer.
Jan has qualified for 17 World Championships, sending him all over the world as a representative of USA Fencing, where he’s earned 4 medals on the international stage:
1999 — 24th (Lake Balaton, Hungary Vet 50 MF)
2000 — 17th (Gödöllő, Hungary, Vet 50 MF)
2001 — 9th (Martinique, France, Vet 50 MF)
2002 — 8th (Tampa, Florida, United States, Vet 50 MF)
2003 — 6th (Limoges, France, Vet 50 MF)
2007 — 17th (Sydney, Australia, Vet 60 MF)
2008 — 12th (Limoges, France, Vet 60 MF)
2009 — 11th (Moscow, Russia, Vet 60 MF)
2010 — 5th (Poreč, Croatia, Vet 60 MF)
2011 — 11th (Poreč, Croatia, Vet 60 MF)
2014 — 17th (Debrecen, Hungary, Vet 60 MF)
2017 — Bronze (Maribor, Slovenia, Vet 70 MF)
2018 — Bronze (Livorno, Italy, Vet 70 MF)
2019 — Silver individual, Silver team (Team Captain and member) (Cairo, Egypt, Vet 70 MF)
2020 — Not Held
2021 — Not held
2022 — 6th (Zadar, Croatia, Vet 70 MF)
Jan’s National medal count includes:
Gold — 16 (2 right-handed, 14 left-handed)
Silver — 9 (5 right-handed, 4 left-handed)
Bronze — 12 (10 right-handed, 2 left-handed)
5th — 7 (4 right-handed, 3 left-handed)
6th — 3 (3 right-handed)
7th — 4 (3 right-handed, 1 left-handed)
8th — 6 (5 right-handed, 1 left-handed)
Jan has been and continues to be an excellent fencing ambassador. We cannot think of anyone more deserving of a lifetime achievement award than Jan Patterson!
Jan’s Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented during the 2024 USA Fencing Veteran Awards Dinner on January 6, 2024. The dinner will be held during the January NAC (January 5-8, 2024) in San Jose, California.
Read the USA Fencing Announcement here, https://www.usafencing.org/news_article/show/1289663.
