Marcus Mepstead OLY ( ; born 11 May 1990) is a British Olympic

foil Foil may refer to: Materials * Foil (metal), a quite thin sheet of metal, usually manufactured with a rolling mill machine * Metal leaf, a very thin sheet of decorative metal * Aluminium foil, a type of wrapping for food * Tin foil, metal foil ma ...

fencer, who competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro. A team bronze medallist at the

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

and 2013 European Championships, and team gold medallist at the

2015 European Games The 2015 European Games, also known as Baku 2015 or Baku 2015 European Games ( az, Bakı 2015 Avropa Oyunları), were the inaugural edition of the European Games, an international multi-sport event for athletes representing the National Olymp ...

. In 2016, he won the

title at the

British Fencing Championships The British Fencing Championships are held annually to determine the British champion. The Championships are currently held at the English Institute of Sport, Sheffield. The championships were not held during World War I, World War II and in 202 ...

. and 2019 Vice-World Champion.

Career

Mepstead started fencing after seeing it on his way home after school. He was a member of the team that earned a bronze medal at the 2010 European Championships in Leipzig, Great Britain's first medal at the major fencing event since 1965, becoming the youngest British athlete to medal at a European Fencing Championships. He took part in the

2011 Summer Universiade The 2011 Summer Universiade ( zh, c=2011年夏季世界大学生运动会, p=Èr líng yī yī Nián xiàjì shìjiè dàxuéshēng yùndònghuì), the XXVI Summer Universiade ( zh, c=第二十六届夏季世界大学生运动会, p=Dì Èrshíl ...

. Great Britain earned another European bronze medal two years later in Zagreb. In 2014 he was drafted into the British World Class Programme ahead of the 2016 Summer Olympics. In the 2014–15 season he took part in the

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition includes all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a b ...

of the

European Games The European Games is a continental multi-sport event in the Olympic Games, Olympic tradition contested by sportsperson, athletes from European nations and several European Olympic Committees#Notes, transcontinental countries. The Games were ...

held in Baku. Great Britain defeated France, then managed a surprise win against favourites Italy to earn the gold medal. In April 2016 he was named in the four man team for the 2016 Summer Olympics in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...

coming on to fight against Russia, Egypt and China as Great Britain finished 6th in the Team Event. In July 2019 he earned the individual silver medal at the 2019 World Championships, beating world number 1 Alessio Foconi in the first round, Son Young Ki 15-12 in the semifinal, before being defeated 15-6 by Enzo Lefort in the final.

Personal life

In 2014 Marcus Mepstead graduated with a 2.1 BSc Honours degree in Economics and Geography at the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 mill ...

. Whilst studying he was part of the

University of London Union Student Central was a students' facility of the University of London. It was previously the students' union of the federal University of London, known as the University of London Union (commonly referred to as ULU, pron. 'yoo-loo'), which was clo ...

team that earned promotion to first division. He was awarded full purples for his involvement as well as building a new sports ambassador role within London School of Economics. Currently he trains full-time, working with the British Athletes Commission as well as mentoring and coaching at clubs and schools.

References

External links

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Profile
at the European Fencing Confederation {{DEFAULTSORT:Mepstead, Marcus 1990 births Living people British male foil fencers Fencers at the 2015 European Games European Games medalists in fencing European Games gold medalists for Great Britain Olympic fencers for Great Britain Fencers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Fencers from London Fencers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Fencers at the 2023 European Games