Medieval combat fighters from the U.S. take seven of nine gold medals at world championships held May 1-4 in Spain.
In a sport based upon the unforgiving, brutal armored battles of medieval Europe, it was Team USA who proved winningest at the International Medieval Combat Federation world championship.
But what some call irony, team members quickly dismiss.
The modern—if you will—pastime of medieval combat attempts to recreate the sport, not the societies of the Middle Ages, Team USA member Scott Stricklin noted via email.
“And hey, isn’t chess from ancient China? Yet the Russians have mastered it,” he wrote.
Europeans settled the U.S., added fellow team member Dale Saran.
“It is easily forgotten now in the days of voluntary military service by a select few that our country was birthed by warrior-statesmen,” Saran, who also is CrossFit Inc.’s general counsel, wrote in an email.
Steve Schroeder, another man on the team, stated it simply:
“The draw of the sword is universal.”