Westwood's Olympian Andrew Mackiewicz Takes on a Triple Gold Medalist at the Tokyo Olympic Games

Image (cropped) by gill_penney on Flickr

At 25 years old, Westwood’s Andrew Mackiewicz has just competed in his first Olympics.  Mr. Mackiewicz was part of Team USA that competed against Hungary on July 28, 2021 in the Men’s Sabre Quarterfinal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. He also earlier competed in the Men's Individual Sabre event. 

The team event was comprised of 9 separate bouts between individual competitors from Team USA and Team Hungary. Mr. Mackiewicz competed in 2 bouts for the United States. 

His first bout was against a formidable opponent – Hungary’s Aron Szilagyi. Mr. Szilagyi had just made history by becoming the first man to win a third gold medal in the Men’s Individual Sabre event. Mr. Szilagyi had earned individual gold at the 2012 London Olympics, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and now the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Even so, Mr. Mackiewicz was able to score a respectable 3 hits against his history-making competitor. 

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Mr. Szilagyi, for his part, made 5 touches. This brought the preceding bout's score of 2-5 up to a new score of 5-10, with Hungary remaining in the lead.

In Mr. Mackiewicz’s second appearance for the Team USA in this event, he went up against Hungary’s Andras Szatmari. In this bout, Mr. Mackiewicz scored one point to bring the score to 12-20. Hungary maintained its lead.

Hungary remained strong throughout the match. The event ended with Hungary on top, 36-45. 

Later that day, this Hungary team would go on to take the bronze medal. Italy won silver and Korea won gold.

The Thrill of Tasting an Olympic Win, and a Loss in Men’s Individual Sabre

On Saturday, July 24, 2021, in the Men’s Individual Sabre event, Mr. Mackiewicz won his first bout against competitor Tomohiro Shimamura from Japan.

Mr. Mackiewicz and Mr. Shimamura seemed to take turns scoring points in the first period. But Mr. Mackiewicz maintained a one point lead for the most part. He widened that lead to a 3 point difference when he made 3 of the last 4 touches in the first period.

In the second period, Mr. Mackiewicz took the early lead by scoring 4 of the first 5 points. Mr. Shimamura made a comeback with 6 of the next 7 touches. This brought the score to 12-13, with Mr. Mackiewicz ahead by 1 point. 

Mr. Shimamura’s rally seems to have ended, however, when he was then issued a yellow card penalty. Mr. Mackiewicz won the match with a final score of 13-15.

In Mr. Mackiewicz’s subsequent bout of the Men’s Individual Sabre event, he faced Korea’s Sanguk Oh.  Mr. Oh, a 24 year old, is ranked #5 in the world for the individual event, and is a member of the #1 ranked Korean Men’s Sabre Team.

Mr. Mackiewicz took an early lead a few times, but Mr. Oh came back to tie and move ahead by 2 points. Mr. Mackiewicz responded with a touch of his own, but the Korean fencer ended the first period ahead, 8-6.

In the second period, Mr. Oh pulled ahead, winning 7 of the next 8 points to take the win. The final score was 15-7, but marked a valiant attempt by Mr. Mackiewicz against a competitor who could be expected to be a contender for an individual medal.

Mr. Oh would go on to defeat Egypt’s Mohamed Amer, 15-7, then lose in a close match to Sandro Bazadze from Georgia, 13-15.

Mr. Bazadze, in turn, lost in the bronze medal match to Junghwam Kim from Korea.

Italy’s Luigi Samele took the silver.  As noted earlier, the impressive Mr. Szilagyi took home his third individual gold in this event for Hungary.

Time will tell what is next in store for Westwood standout Mr. Mackiewicz. Whatever that may be, his hometown will be cheering him on.

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