| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | (1951-07-16) July 16, 1951 (age 73) Baltimore, Maryland, United States | |||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Fencing | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Ruth White (born July 16, 1951) is an American doctor and retired foil fencer.
Life and career
White was born on July 16, 1951 in Baltimore, Maryland where she faced racial discrimination at school for being African-American.
In 1969, White became the first African-American to win a US fencing championship. She also competed at the 1971 Pan American Games where she won a gold medal in the team foil event and silver medal in the individual foil event.
She competed in fencing at New York University, coached by future Olympic coach Michel Sebastiani. She fenced on his women's team that won the 1971 National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association championship, as she won all 27 of her bouts. As Sebastiani confidently predicted she would to The New York Times – she went on to compete for Team USA at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
She was the first African-American women to represent the US in fencing at the Olympics. She competed in the women's individual and team foil events at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Soon after she competed at the Olympics, White left fencing to go into medicine at the New York University School of Medicine and went on to work in internal medicine.
White was inducted into NYU's Hall of Fame in 1989, and into the USA Fencing Hall of Fame in 2001.
See also
References
- "Ruth WHITE - Olympic Fencing | United States of America". International Olympic Committee. June 12, 2016. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
- ^ Henneman, Kristen (February 27, 2017). "Olympian Ruth White Found Freedom in Fencing". USA Fencing. Retrieved September 3, 2019.
- Bill Alden (June 14, 2006). "25-Year Passion Play Concludes for PU Fencing Coach Sebastiani," Town Topics.
- "Women's Fencing," Princeton Tigers.
- "NIWFA Team Champions," NIWFA.
- "N.Y.U. Captures Women's Fencing," The New York Times, April 4, 1971.
- "Ruth White Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on April 18, 2020. Retrieved February 23, 2011.
External links
Categories:
- 1951 births
- Living people
- American female foil fencers
- American internists
- 20th-century American physicians
- Olympic fencers for the United States
- Fencers at the 1972 Summer Olympics
- Sportspeople from Baltimore
- Physicians from Baltimore
- New York University Grossman School of Medicine alumni
- Fencers at the 1971 Pan American Games
- Medalists at the 1971 Pan American Games
- Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in fencing
- Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States in fencing
- 20th-century African-American women
- 20th-century African-American physicians
- 21st-century African-American sportswomen
- 21st-century American sportswomen
- Women internists
- 20th-century American sportswomen