Rebecca Ward

Prep: Won the bronze medals in the team and individual sabre events at the 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing, China ... entered the individual competition seeded No. 2 and defeated Spain’s Araceli Navarro 12-7, Hungary’s Orsolya Nagy 15-5 and Tunisia’s Azza Besbes 15-14 to advance to the semifinals ... fell to US teammate Mariel Zagunis 15-11 in the semis before defeating Russia’s Sofiya Velikaya 15-14 in the bronze medal match ... helped the top-seeded US sabre squad defeat France 45-38 five days later to win the bronze medal in the team sabre competition ... won six of her nine bouts in the team competition, including two of three in the bronze medal round ... helped the same squad win the gold at the Las Vegas Grand Prix on June 20, which was the final qualifier before the 2008 Olympic Games ... is the top-ranked senior fencer in women’s sabre entering her college career based on the US Fencing point standings (17,003 points) ... took first place at the 2007 Cadet World Championships ... Also took first in the Senior, Junior and Cadet World Championships in 2006 ... helped her sabre team finish first in the 2005 Senior Team World Championships.

Personal: Was home-schooled in Portland, Oregon ... the daughter of Bill and Beth Ward ... has a brother, Williams, age 22 ... plans to major in Environmental Law ... writes for the Duke student newspaper, The Chronicle.