Human performance · Épée

Fencing

Physical chess at full speed. Fencing is where I practice the same discipline I preach in engineering — reading a system under pressure, committing to a decision with incomplete information, and living with the touch light either way.

Eric Rhea (right) attacking with an extended épée against an opponent mid-bout
On the attack at the Iowa Games, Lied Recreation Athletic Facility, 2023.

Medals

Competing in épée at the Iowa Games, Iowa's statewide amateur athletics festival presented by Grinnell Mutual.

🥇 Gold — Iowa Games

July 15, 2023

Top of the podium in épée.

Eric Rhea atop the Iowa Games podium with the fencing gold medal, flanked by fellow medalists

The hardware

Iowa Games medal detail

Shield, stars, and two fencers mid-touch.

Close-up of the Iowa Games gold medal showing two engraved fencers

🥈 Silver — Iowa Games

2025

Second-place finish, and a turn in front of the cameras: interviewed in WHO13's coverage of the Games and their 10,000 participants. Read the WHO13 story.

Eric Rhea with the Iowa Games fencing silver medal, 2025

On camera

WHO13 Des Moines covered the 2025 Summer Iowa Games and pulled me off the strip for an interview — still in whites, glove half off.

Eric Rhea in fencing whites being interviewed on camera by a WHO13 reporter at the Iowa Games
The interview, mid-answer, on the Lied Center track.
Television showing the WHO13 broadcast of Eric Rhea's Iowa Games interview
The broadcast, as it aired on WHO13 Des Moines.
A clip of the interview airing.

On the strip

From Iowa Games bouts to USA Fencing national events — the RHEA USA jacket gets around.

Eric Rhea, RHEA USA on his jacket, engaging blades with an opponent in an épée bout
Blade contact — épée bout, Iowa Games.
Eric Rhea lunging against an opponent on a national-event strip with scoring table behind
Full extension at a USA Fencing national event.
Eric Rhea testing an opponent on the strip at a USA Fencing national convention-center venue
On the strip at a USA Fencing national event.
Back of Eric Rhea's fencing jacket reading RHEA USA, mask in hand between bouts
Between bouts. The name goes where the work goes.
USA Fencing and Nike Fencing banner hanging in a competition venue
Venue colors: USA Fencing × Nike.

Iowa Games coverage

The Iowa Games' own social coverage of the 2023 fencing events — "one of our more unique sports" — featured these bouts, RHEA USA visible on the strip.

Iowa Games Facebook post featuring fencing photos from the 2023 Summer Iowa Games, with Eric Rhea on the strip Iowa Games Facebook post photo of Eric Rhea in blade contact with an opponent Iowa Games Facebook post photo of an opponent lunging at Eric Rhea mid-bout

The playing card

Playing card featuring Eric Rhea, made in 2025

Made in 2025. Somewhere between a trading card and a warning label.

When you get immortalized in card form, you put it on the website. Those are the rules.

Why fencing

Épée is a decision system with a tiny scoring window. Every touch is a hypothesis about what your opponent will do next, tested at full speed, with immediate and unambiguous feedback. It trains the same muscles I use leading technical work: patience under pressure, distance management, knowing the difference between activity and initiative — and resetting cleanly after a touch against you.