Race Imboden

Race Alick Reid Imboden (born April 17, 1993) is an American left-handed former foil fencer.

Imboden joined the Fencer's Club in Manhattan, where he first met Jed Dupree and Dan Kellner, both of whom were foil fencing Olympians at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

They worked with him as a student, and Imboden made several connections.

One lasting connection was that of the friendship to his long-time colleague Declan MacPherson, who Imboden notably gave an autograph to upon their first meeting.

Imboden was educated at the Dwight School, which supported his budding sports career.

His debut international competition came at age 14 when he won a bronze medal in the cadet (U17) 2010 world fencing championships.

Imboden joined the national cadet (U17) team in 2010 and capped the year with the Cadet National Championship title.

After graduating high school in spring 2011 he reconsidered his earlier signed intent to immediately attend Notre Dame, and took a year to focus on his training.

He became a member of the Brooklyn Bridge Fencing Club, in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn, with Dan Kellner as his coach.

He finally opted for St. John's University in New York, because it was closer to his family and coach.

Imboden's other passion is hip hop.

A year later, he was an individual titlist at the Senior National Championship in Portland, Oregon, and team foil titlist at the 2011 and 2012 Pan American Fencing Championships.

At the age of 17, he made the senior national team for the 2011 World Championships in Catania.

For his first participation to an event of this magnitude, he reached the quarter-finals after seeing off triple world titlist Peter Joppich, but lost to France's Victor Sintès.

At the beginning of the 2011–12 World Cup he stood on the World Cup podium for his bronze medal in the Challenge International de Paris.

He competed in the 2012 London Olympic Games, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, and the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games.

In addition to his fencing career, Imboden is also a menswear fashion model.

Imboden was born in Tampa, Florida.

His parents gave him his name after the Jonny Quest character Race Bannon.

He moved to Atlanta at a young age.

His first sports were inline skating and BMX; an inline skating accident left him with a crooked nose and a scar on his lip.

He was playing with a toy sword in a park when a stranger suggested to his parents that he take up fencing.

Shortly afterwards his family moved to Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York City.

He interned at independent label Fool's Gold in 2012 and is a DJ in his spare time.

Imboden and French foil fencer Ysaora Thibus met at a party after the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games and began dating shortly afterward.

The couple became engaged at the Pigalle in Paris after the Tokyo Olympic Games.

His good international results qualified him to the US national team to compete at the London 2012 Summer Olympics with the top-ranked team in the Americas zone.

Imboden finished 10th in the 2012–13 FIE world rankings.

In 2013 Imboden won the gold medal at the 2013 Copa Villa La Habana, his first World Cup title, breaking a 14-year drought of US Foil World Cup titlists.

He is now one of two US men's foil fencers to have won a World Cup competition.

In June of the same year he won a silver medal in the Pan American fencing Championships in Cartagena after being defeated in the final by his teammate Gerek Meinhardt.

At the 2013 World Fencing Championships in Budapest Imboden was defeated in the table of 16 by Ukraine's Rostyslav Hertsyk, who later earned a bronze medal.

He took part in the team event for the United States, who lost the final to Italy and took the silver medal.

Imboden began the 2013–14 season win a silver medal finish in the 2013 World Combat Games.

He won his second USA Division-1 National Championship title in April 2014, defeating David Willette 15–6.

He placed second in the SK Trophée in Seoul and third in the Prince Takamado World Cup.

Seeded No. 4, he finished 9th after being eliminated in the table of 16 by Andrea Baldini of Italy.

In the team event, No. 5 seeded USA prevailed over France, lost to Italy (who would win the gold medal), and a loss followed in the bronze medal match with Germany.

He is a nine-time team Pan American champion, six-time individual Pan American champion, and 2019 team world champion.

A three-time Olympian, Imboden is a two-time team Olympic bronze medalist.