Maplewood’s Jackie Drubrovich, at far left, and her U.S. foil teammates are elated after winning the gold medal at the Summer Olympics.
MAPLEWOOD, NJ — Jackie Dubrovich is an Olympic gold medalist.
The fencer and Maplewood resident was part of Team USA that defeated Italy in the Foil Team finals at the Summer Olympics in Paris, France, on Thursday, Aug. 1. It was the first-ever Olympic team fencing gold for the United States.
Dubrovich, 30, trains at New Jersey Fencing Alliance in Maplewood.
Frank Mustilli, NJFA head coach/founder/managing director, was elated for Dubrovich for winning an Olympic gold medal.
“NJFA is extremely proud of Jackie and the rest of the United States team on this phenomenal accomplishment,” said Mustilli in an interview with the News-Record. “Jackie has been working since she was 8 years old to get to this point in her life. NJFA is so proud that she represented us for the last two years.”
Dubrovich competed in her second straight Olympics. She was on the U.S. Olympic team in 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.
Dubrovich, a Riverdale native who was a 2010 state individual foil champion at Pompton Lakes High School in Passaic County, was joined in Paris by her fiance and NJFA coach, Brian Kaneshige, a former Columbia High School standout who won state individual foil titles for the Cougars in 2009 and 2010. Kaneshige served as her coach in Paris.
Before winning the gold, Dubrovich started her Olympic competition in an individual event on Sunday, July 28, but lost a close bout, 15-12, against Hungary’s Flora Pasztor in the round of 31.
In June, Dubrovich was given a rousing sendoff by the NJFA, located in the St. Joseph’s Church basement on Hilton Avenue.
Dubrovich is the second local fencer who has competed in the Summer Olympics. Ibtihaj Muhammad, a CHS alumna, Class of 2003, competed for Team USA in the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she became the first woman to wear a hijab while competing for the United States in the Olympics and became the first female Muslim-American athletic to earn an Olympic medal, as she won the bronze medal in the Team Sabre.
A Harvard University product, Kaneshige also has won gold medals in Junior Olympics in 2010 and 2011, gold in the 2015 January North America Cup and silver in the 2016 USA Fencing National Championships.
Photos Courtesy of USA Fencing
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