Maddie Burks trains at NCF Boulder and represented the United States at the 2025 Pan American Championships in Lima, Peru. She earned a silver medal in Youth Women’s Epee, an international result that places her among the top young epee fencers in the Western Hemisphere.
Sixth in the Nation
Maddie carried that momentum into the 2026 USA Fencing National Championships, the largest fencing tournament in the world. She finished 6th in the nation in Division II Women’s Epee, out of a field of 158 fencers drawn from clubs across the country.
Days earlier she placed in the top 16 of Division I-A Women’s Epee, a senior event where she competed against collegiate and adult fencers, and earned her B rating. USA Fencing rates competitors on a scale from E up to A, and a B places Maddie among the strongest women’s epee fencers in the country at any age. She earned it while still young enough to fence in the Y-14 age category.
Those national results capped a 2025-26 season in which Maddie won 9 medals across her tournament calendar: 4 gold, 2 silver, and 3 bronze.
Training at NCF
Maddie holds a B rating in epee and trains alongside the A-rated epee fencers at NCF. Her development has been guided by the same coaching methodology that has produced 46 individual national champions over 47 years.
Her trajectory illustrates what is possible when a young fencer trains in an environment that prioritizes long-term development over short-term results. The technical foundation, tactical sophistication, and competitive resilience required to medal at the Pan American level don’t emerge from casual training. They are built systematically, over years, by coaches who have done it before.
What Her Results Mean
For prospective families, Maddie’s results answer a critical question: is this program producing results right now?
Gary Copeland’s US Olympic Committee Coach of the Year award validates his career. Jasmine McGlade’s Harvard All-American career validates the developmental pathway. Maddie’s Pan American medal and her 2026 national results validate the current training environment. NCF is not coasting on historical achievements. The program is producing international medalists today.
The Pathway
Maddie’s development followed NCF’s structured approach: foundational technique, progressive competitive exposure, national-level competition, and international selection. The coaching staff’s experience with 64 World and Pan American team selections means they understand exactly what it takes to develop fencers who compete at this level.
For families considering fencing as a college pathway, Maddie’s international results represent the kind of competitive profile that earns attention from NCAA coaches at the nation’s most elite programs.