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Peter Westbrook

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Peter Westbrook
Medal record
Men's Athletics
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place 1984 Los Angeles Individual Sabre
Pan American Games
Gold medal – first place 1983 Caracas Individual sabre
Gold medal – first place 1995 Mar del Plata Individual sabre
Gold medal – first place 1995 Mar del Plata Team sabre
Silver medal – second place 1975 Mexico City Team sabre
Silver medal – second place 1979 San Juan Individual sabre
Silver medal – second place 1979 San Juan Team sabre
Silver medal – second place 1983 Caracas Team sabre
Silver medal – second place 1987 Indianapolis Individual sabre
Silver medal – second place 1987 Indianapolis Team sabre
Bronze medal – third place 1975 Mexico City Individual sabre

Peter Westbrook (born April 16, 1952) is a former American sabre fencing champion, active businessman and founder of the Peter Westbrook Foundation.

As a former U.S. champion and Olympic medalist, Peter Westbrook came to fencing from an unlikely direction: the inner city. Westbrook's remarkable life began with his Japanese mother, who convinced him to try fencing. As a Newark teenager in the 1960s, Westbrook brought unseen intensity to the sport: anger over his largely missing father, his poverty, and his status as a biracial man in a racist society helped to fuel Westbrook to remarkable heights within his sport. Westbrook became renown for harnessing his anger and used it to his advantage as a competitor.

In retirement, Westbrook would go onto found the Peter Westbrook Foundation, a non-profit that uses the sport of fencing to help guide New York's inner city youth. Through the foundation, many young athletes have benefited from Westbrook's motivational message and gone on to achieve similar success winning national and world fencing titles, as well as succeeding on the Olympic stage. Most, however, identify with – and learn from – a man who kept the very quality that led to his success in athletics and used such talent to contribute and better his community.

Biography

Westbrook's father, Ulysses, had been a G.I. during the Korean War; his Japanese mother, Mariko, was a war bride, and Mr. Westbrook's earliest memories are of violence: his father frequently abusing his mother.

Westbrook was 4 when his father left, leaving his mother, Mariko to raise the family. Mariko Westbrook supported Peter and his younger sister with factory work. Eventually, when there was no money for food, she knocked on the neighbors' doors. She would eventually, work as a maid for a priest and Peter with his sister attended Catholic schools free.

The young Peter Westbrook was a thief and a fighter -- "a very good fighter", he says; taunted because of his mixed race, he had to be. Growing up in Newark, New Jersey, Westbrook was exposed to the harsh realities of inner city living. He started fencing, at Essex Catholic High School, only because his mother bribed him with $5, a way of keeping him out of trouble.

Early Fencing career

Westbrook grew up in New Jersey, and attended Essex Catholic High School, where he took up fencing after being bribed by his mother. Shortly after, Westbrook would go onto become a state champion.[1]

College

For college, he attended New York University on a full scholarship, and graduated in 1975.[1]

In 1973 he won the NCAA fencing championships in sabre.

National championships

He won the U.S. national men's sabre championship 13 times (1974–'75, '79–'86, '88–'89, and '95).[2] He also called it his lucky thirteen for those times.

Pan American Games

He won gold medals at the Pan American Games in 1983 and 1995, silver medals in 1979 and 1987, and a bronze medal in 1975.[3]

Olympics

He won a bronze medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He was a member of 5 other Olympic teams as well. Westbrook was the flag bearer for the United States at the 1992 Summer Olympics closing ceremony.[4]

Peter Westbrook Foundation

After his retirement from competition Westbrook would go on to found the Peter Westbrook Foundation (PWF) in New York City in 1991, an organization that seeks to guide inner-city youth away from gang violence and the hardships of life by having them participate in fencing. Westbrook and his elite team of volunteer coaches and athletes, allow their young students to express frustration and anger that they feel in their daily lives in a positive way through sport; a process that has lead a handful to replicate their predecessor’s success. In 2000 the Peter Westbrook Foundation would be represented on the international stage for the first time when Ahki Spencer-el, Keeth Smart and his sister Erinn Smart would qualify for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. In 2004 four of his students from the Foundation, Keeth Smart, Kamara James, Ivan Lee, and Erinn Smart represented the United States of America in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

Ivan Lee won the 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2008 sabre national championships, Keeth Smart won the 2004 and 2002 national championship titles and was ranked # 1 in the world in 2003 (the first ever American to hold this rank). Erinn Smart won the 1998, 2002, 2004, 2007 and 2008 women's foil national championships, and Kamara James was ranked # 1 in the world in women's épée in 2004.

In 2008, the Peter Westbrook Foundation would reach unprecedented levels of success when the brother-sister duo, and life-long PWF members Keeth Smart and Erinn Smart would go on to represent the United States in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China and both return home with silver medals. These medals would not only symbolize the individual victories of Keeth and Erinn but reaffirm the Peter Westbrook Foundation in its mission and ideals.

Other notable Fencers trained by the Peter Westbrook Foundation include:

Keeth Smart, Ivan Lee, Erinn Smart, Kamara James, Aki Spencer-El, Benjamin Bratton, Dwight Smith, Donovan Holtz, Rashaan Greenhouse, Adam Rodney, Harvey Miller III, Herby Raynaud, Dwayne Smith, Ras Davidson, Marty Williams, Daniel Bak, Ibtihaj Muhammad, Torian Brown, Epiphany Georges, Nzinga Prescod, Carrington Harris, Adam Crompton, Andre Crompton, Ahmed Yilla, Daniel Bak, and Adrian Bak.

Writing

In 1997, Westbrook published his memoirs, Harnessing Anger ISBN 1-888363-39-8, ISBN 1-888363-67-3 in which he describes turning his childhood experiences into a drive to succeed at his sport and the inception of the Peter Westbrook Foundation.

In Harnessing Anger, Westbrook tells how he came to be the first African American to win a national gold title in sabre fencing along with reaching international levels of success. Westbrook describes how as the son of an African-American father and a Japanese mother, Peter was aided by his mother alone in poverty in a Newark ghetto. Becoming a fencer at an early age gave him the confidence and the discipline to use an ancient martial art to his advantage both in swordplay and when facing the vicissitudes of daily life in the inner city.

The autobiography of this 6-time Olympian, 13-time U.S. National champion is the only book on his amazing life. Harnessing Anger tells us how Westbrook has overcome strong adversaries on and off the fencing strip.

Film

Hall of Fame & Other Honors

Westbrook was indcuted into the New York University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1985.[5]

Westbrook was inducted into the USFA Hall of Fame in 1996.

He was also inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame of New Jersey in 2002.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Wadler, Joyce. "PUBLIC LIVES; A Saber Rattler Teaching Sportsmanship", The New York Times, September 6, 2000. Accessed October 23, 2007. "He started fencing, at Essex Catholic High School, only because his mother bribed him with $5.... Mr. Westbrook was a statewide champion in high school, received a full athletic scholarship to New York University, attended his first Olympic Games in 1976 at age 24."
  2. ^ [1][dead link‍]
  3. ^ "Fencing: Pan American Games: Men: Sabre". Sports 123. Retrieved March 22, 2010.
  4. ^ [2][dead link‍]
  5. ^ "New York University". Nyu.edu. March 17, 2010. Retrieved March 22, 2010.[dead link‍]
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