Beijing 2008 Olympics

Truly one of the most beautiful sports that we sadly only see receive any media coverage in Fencing. Italy’s Maria Valentina Vezzali won her third consecutive gold medal in Women’s Individual Foil Fencing title as she defeated Nam Hyun-hee of the Republic of Korea, who took the silver medal.

Maria Valentina Vezzali wins her third straight Gold for Italy (Photo credit: Getty)

Will and desire are the key mixtures for athletic superiority and we’ve already seen so much of this.  Yet for many of this in the sporting world we tend to get a myopic view of "intensity." Maybe it’s the standard male bravado or the vision of some sports being "more intense" than others but from my experiences in sport and life, you can never really put a cover of the look of intensity other than the glint in a person’s eye with that "anyway, anyhow" look.

In going through a series of photos today I came across this extraordinary image of Maria Valentina Vezzali, that seems to capture that notion perfectly.

Italian fencer Maria Valentina Vezzali (Photo credit: Getty)

University of Notre Dame’ Mariel Zagunis defended her Olympic victory in Athens by defeating teammate Sada Jacobson to win her second gold medal. Sada Jacobson takes the silver and Rebecca Ward won the bronze medal match against Russia’s Sofiya Velikaya.

Mariel Zagunis defends her gold medal (Photo credit: Getty)