I began my journey into the world of fencing nearly twenty years ago as a six year old at the Rochester Fencing Club in upstate New York. My immigrant parents (my father from Germany and my mother, China) immediately grasped the importantance of sports in the United States and signed my sister and me up for fencing lessons.

My older sister Felicia and I immediately fell in love with the sport, and we were both identified as having an unusual talent at a very young age. At age fourteen I became the first American to win a World Championship title. I then became the youngest ever National Champion at the age of sixteen, and went on to win the Bronze at the Senior World Championships in Seoul, Korea at age nineteen. One of the greatest experiences of my life, however, was the opportunity to compete with my sister in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.  In that year, we went on to place higher than any other U.S. Olympic Fencing team in history – just missing the Bronze Medal by two touches.

After the 2000 Olympics, I decided that my focus on college superseded another international campaign for a championship.  However, I remained active in foil, and served as captain of the Stanford fencing team for three years.  After study in Moscow and receiving a political science degree from Stanford, I became a member of a California gubernatorial campaign.   

Though I found my work rewarding and value the experience and friendships I made, I felt that I still had something left to accomplish in fencing.  When Coach Nat Goodhartz, national women’s foil team coach, called in 2006 and asked if I would like to make a comeback, I jumped at the chance. I immediately packed my car for my hometown of Rochester, NY to train for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Welcome to my website and my journey to Beijing.

What's Coming Up

Pan-American Zonal Champions
From left to right: Erinn Smart, Emily Cross, Hanna Thompson, and Iris Zimmermann

From left to right: Iris Zimmmermann, Doris Willette, Hanna Thompson,
and Emily Cross

EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA!

The women's foil team including: Iris Zimmermann, Erinn Smart, Hanna Thompson, Emily Cross, and Doris Willette, will be living in Budapest, Hungary from February 1-March 17th. The team has decided to use Budapest as a central location to travel to each of the successive six world cups throughout February and March. Each of these world cups will count towards USA team qualification AND individual spot determination. The world cup in Marseille, France will be the last qualifying world cup for the Beijing Olympic team. Right now everyone is in the running for the top three USA spots!

The team will be determined on April 1st.

The world cups will include:

Feb 9-10 Belgrade, Serbia
Feb 16-17 Salzburg Austria
Feb 23-24 Leipzig, Germany
Feb 29-March 1 Gdansk, Poland
Mar 5-7 St. Petersburg Russia
Mar 15-16 Budapest, Hungary
(move back home between Budapest and Marseille)
Mar 29-30 World Cup Marseille, France

The journey continues!

If you would like more information about the upcoming events please email iris@iriszimmermann.com