Archer School Student Honored as International Fencing Champion

A junior at The Archer School for Girls is making international headlines as a fencing champion.

Jennifer Horowitz, 17 and a junior, was inducted into the National Jewish Museum Sports Hall of Fame on April 21 at its headquarters in Commack, NY.

In January, she placed 11th in the Junior World Cup competition in Dijon, France. Soon after returning to the U.S. from her international events, she competed in and became the 2013 gold medalist in the U.S. Fencing Association’s Junior Olympics Championships.

"Every sport represents the challenge to bring our personal best," she said. "I love fencing specifically because it's just you out there. It is solitary, and really commands the most from you in terms of accountability and responsibility for the outcome. Fencing has made me stronger and braver in every way."

Horowitz took her first fencing lesson as a third grader. Since 2006, she has studied fencing with siblings Nana Demirchian, former member of Armenia’s national fencing team as well as Gago Demirchian, a three-time Armenian National Épée champion. Additionally, she has also received training from their father, Edouard Demirchian, the former Armenian national coach. She trains at the Los Angeles International Fencing Center.

At age 12, Horotwitz won the United States Fencing Association’s nationals. Since then, she has won multiple national championships in each age category in which she has competed. In addition, she has been honored with gold medals twice in United States Fencing Association’s North America Cup, and in the in spring, 2012, she also became the gold medalist in the U.S. High School Fencing Championships.

By the tenth grade, she had qualified to represent the United States at the Cadet and Junior World Cup events. In the fall and winter of 2011 and 2012, she represented the United States in competitions in France, Germany, Sweden, and Slovakia.

Horowitz said she will continue her love of fencing to compete at the Senior World Cup in Rio in May, and was recently selected to represent the United States as a member of the fencing team this summer at the 2013 Maccabi Games in Israel.

The young scholar athlete is the daughter of Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, M.D., UCLA Cardiologist and author of “Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us About Health and the Science of Healing” (Knopf, June 2012) and Zach Horowitz, chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group.

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