Ex-fencer takes the hard road to Atlanta

As Peter Cox walked onto the center strip at the Georgia World Congress Center during the 1996 Olympic sabre competition, his eyes scanned the audience.

He saw Chelsea Clinton, among others. He also saw his friends and family who made the trip to Atlanta from his hometown of Concord, Mass., and his adopted hometown of Kansas City, Kan. He saw his wife, his parents and his brother David at the edge of the strip.

But then his thoughts drifted to the one person who wasn't in the audience, the one who said no matter what, he would be there to see Peter in the Olympics.

It was Mark, his younger brother, who was missing. He had committed suicide two years earlier.

Mark was a student at Hamilton College in New York in 1994. He couldn't get into a class he needed, and it meant he wouldn't graduate in four years.

"Something snapped," remembered Peter, a 1989 Penn State graduate. "He got really depressed."

On March 21, 1994, Mark hung himself.

It made Peter's mission to make the U.S. Olympic team more than just a personal quest.

"I did it partially for me," Peter said, "but I also did it for my parents."

The calamity helped Peter fight through his pain while training. He said when he was struggling he would imagine the pain his brother must have been in, and he could carry on.

"I always look for the positive," Peter said. "I know he's in a better place. I've tried to be a stronger person. It helped me in my training. When I was in pain ... to imagine his pain ... to put your head in that rope."

Fencers who trained with Peter also felt the repercussions of Mark's death.

"All that anger came out," Peter said. "People stopped coming here (to train). They'd wear two jackets because I hit them so hard."

When he stepped on that strip for his first Olympic match it brought a sense of closure. He had finally made it . . . for himself, his coaches, his parents and his brother.

"It meant a lot for me to be there and see my parents and brother," he said. "It was pretty emotional."

The emotions weren't all due to his brother and his trials, though. It also was due to the magnitude of the event he was in and the 3,600 people screaming, "USA. USA. USA."

"I got the first hit and they went crazy," Peter said. "I could see their eyes, I could see their pupils dilating. They still cheered when I got hit, but it wasn't as loud. I got so caught up in it I threw out my strategy, and I just tried to win."

Peter, the 27th seed, won his first bout, over 38th-seed Hyo-Kun Lee of Korea. He won 15-9.

"We had been waiting all morning," said Heidi, Peter's wife. "We had got there at about 7 (a.m.) and Peter didn't fence until 11 (a.m.). That moment when he finally came out and saluted and then started to fence. Then he got touch after touch. We were just screaming. Everyone's emotions spurted out from the morning. That was the most memorable moment, the first bout."

The gold medal, however, was not to be, and Peter lost in the next round, 15-12, to the 1995 World Champion Felix Becker of Germany. Peter finished 28th overall, the highest finish of any American male fencer at the 1996 Games.

Peter was a four-time All-American at Penn State, compiling a 137-21 record and winning a national title in sabre during his senior season in 1989. After graduation, he studied to become a chiropractor at Cleveland Chiropractic College in Kansas City, Mo.

Peter continued to fence while attending school. He competed on the national stage at such events as the 1995 World Championships and at the 1993 and 1995 World University Games. One goal, however, still remained.

He trained rigorously, fencing at two-hour clips for six days a week -- he only roller bladed on Sundays, his off days -- all the while still going to school.

While most athletes took time off from school or work to prepare for the Olympics, Peter was not allowed that luxury. His last year at the chiropractic college was 1996, and during that time, he had to perform his clinical study straight through -- no breaks, not even for the Olympics.

To attend the qualifying events for the Games, Peter crammed two weeks of work into one week. In the final year of training, this included 12 trips to Europe.

These trips also cost money. Peter raised $50,000 in order to go on the 39 trips he took in the four years leading up to the Olympics. He began a fund-raising campaign in Kansas City with Heidi's help. They sent out newsletters, press releases and sponsored a golf tournament. He also gave motivational speeches in front of crowds as small as 20 people and as large as 1,500.

For his four-week sabbatical to Atlanta, he would have to do four extra weeks of work in advance.

"I was passionate about both (the Olympics and school)," Peter said. "I want to prove you can do both. You don't have to put your life on hold to be in the Olympics. You can also do other things than just being a doctor."

Peter's coach, Vladimir Nazlymov, didn't agree. According to Peter, Nazlymov felt his student didn't have the proper commitment and told Peter 10 months before the Olympics he would no longer coach him.

"It threw my confidence level off for about a week," Peter said. "Then I thought, 'I don't need him,' and I started training on my own."

He then called on an old friend to coach him, his younger brother David.

"I was surprised," David said. "When you think of a coach in a traditional sense, it's someone with a lot of international experience and coaching experience. I hadn't coached, but when I thought about it, it made logical sense. He and I fenced together for a long time. We more or less coached each other growing up."

With David's help, Peter accomplished what he set out to do. He overcame adversity and represented his country in the biggest sporting event in the world. This is part of the reason Peter has now decided to retire.

"To make an Olympic team and represent the U.S. is a big dream and few achieve it," said Emmanuil Kaidanov, who coached Peter at Penn State. "How a little boy from Concord, Mass., can do that seems to be crazy. Everyone carries their own Olympic medal inside them, but most don't achieve it. I believe Peter has won an Olympic medal for himself."