Keeth Smart

Radhe Krishna 17-08-08

Keeth Smart

United States Fencing
Birthdate: July 29, 1978
Weight: 165 lbs (75 kg)
Height: 6’0” (1.83 m)
Age: 30 years
Gender: Male

Smart cheats death, leads U.S. to saber silver

7 hours, 24 minutes ago

By Gelu Sulugiuc

BEIJING (Reuters) - Keeth Smart beat back a rare blood disease that nearly killed him four months ago then inspired the U.S. men’s saber team to an unexpected silver medal at the Olympics on Sunday.

“This year has been one of the hardest years of my life as well as one of the greatest years of my life,” he said after leading the United States to two thrilling comeback victories on their way to the final, which they lost 45-37 to France.

It was the first American men’s fencing medal at the Olympics since 1984.

“I’ve been on a rollercoaster,” Smart said. “I’ll probably take a deep breath and it will all hit me. I’m still on an emotional high.”

In April, doctors told Smart he had a low platelet count and could die of severe internal bleeding within two days. Just as he started to get better after two weeks in intensive care, his mother died of cancer.

Having missed months of competition and training, the lanky left-hander from Brooklyn showed up in Beijing still thinking about the Athens Olympics, where he lost bronze medal matches by one point in both the individual and team saber events.

Faced with that situation two more times on Sunday, he came out on the winning end.

Smart took the U.S. back from a four-point deficit to a 45-44 victory over world champions Hungary in the quarterfinals. Then did one better by dominating world champion Stanislav Pozdnyakov and erasing a five-point deficit in the semi-finals against Russia to eke out another 45-44 win.

“Pozdnyakov is one of the greatest fencers of all time,” Smart said. “I was really fortunate today to stick with the game plan that we developed. Nobody expected us to, but we showed that we can work and do really well.”

Smart outclassed the French fencers in the final as well, but received less support from his team mates and had to settle for silver before retiring to begin business school at Columbia University.

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)