Soren Hunter Miles Sussman Thompson (born May 5, 1981) is an American épée fencer, team world champion, and two-time Olympian. He represented the United States in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, where he reached the quarterfinals and came in 7th, the best US result in the event since 1956 and at the time the second-best US result of all time. He also represented the US in the 2012 Olympics in London. Thompson won a gold medal and world championship in the team épée event at the 2012 World Fencing Championships. He was inducted into the USA Fencing Hall of Fame in 2018, and the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2020.
Early and personal life
Thompson was born in San Diego, California, and attended Torrey Pines High School, graduating in 1999. He then attended Princeton University, majoring in Art and Architecture. While attending Princeton, Thompson took a year off from school to focus on his training prior to the 2004 Athens Olympics. Thompson graduated with an A.B. in art and archaeology from Princeton University in 2005 after completing an 87-page-long senior thesis, titled "The San Diego School of Organic Architecture", under the supervision of Esther da Costa Meyer.
From 2008 until April 2011 he worked for Hycrete, a clean-tech company in Northern New Jersey. Since 2015, Thompson has served as Vice President of Business Development of Daxor Corporation, a blood volume diagnostic company in New York City. He received an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School in 2016.
He was a resident of San Diego, and now resides in New York City.
Fencing career
Thompson started fencing when he was 7 years old. He eventually became the highest-ranked junior in the United States.
Thompson currently represents the New York Athletic Club, and trains there and at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. His coaches have included Alison Reid, Lisa Posthumus, Gago Demirchian, Yefim Litvan, Michel Sebastiani, Heizaburo Okawa, and Michael D'Asaro Sr.
NCAA championships
Thompson attended Princeton University. Fencing at Princeton under Maître Michel Sebastiani, Thompson was the 2001 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Épée Champion, came in 2nd in 2002, and was 3rd in 2005.
His other NCAA awards include First Team All-American in 2001–02 and 2005, and Honorary All-American in 2003, First Team All-Ivy in 2001–03 and 2005, and Academic All-Ivy in 2005.
In 2005, Princeton awarded Thompson the William Winston Roper Trophy, its highest honor for a male athlete.
Junior and Senior National Championships
Thompson won the US Junior National Championship and the US Junior Olympics Championship in 1999 in épée.
He won individual gold medals in men's épée at both the 2011 US Fencing National Championships and the 2018 US Fencing National Championships.
Through 2021, he has won team gold medals in men's épée in the 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2019, and 2021 US Fencing National Championships with teams from the New York Athletic Club.
World Championships
Thompson won the team bronze medal in the 1999 Junior World Fencing Championships. The following year, he came in 11th individually at the 2000 Junior World Fencing Championships.
Thompson took 8th in the 2003 World Fencing Championships in Havana, Cuba, defeating top seed Ivan Kovacs of Hungary (15–14).
He came in 26th in the 2006 World Fencing Championships in épée, in Turin, Italy. At the 2011 World Fencing Championships, Thompson made it as far as the Round of 16 (where he lost to 2011 world champion Paolo Pizzo of Italy) in Catania, Italy.
At the 2012 World Fencing Championships in Kyiv, Ukraine, in April 2012, Thompson won the gold medal for the team épée event, as part of the U.S. Men's Épée Team that won the first Senior World Championship fencing title for American men in history. The US team defeated six-time reigning World Champion France in the finals.
Olympics
2004
While attending Princeton, Thompson took a year off of school to focus on his training prior to the 2004 Athens Olympics. He qualified for both the individual and team épée competitions in Athens.