🤺0️⃣3️⃣3️⃣ Justin Tausig
Former U.S. Senior National Team Fencer Justin Tausig. Photo: Justin Tausig.
Meet Justin Tausig, a sports and performance psychologist and former six-time member of the U.S. Senior National Team who cut his teeth in the world of elite fencing in Paris at the Racing Club de France.
Born July 1970, Tausig grew up in New York watching Errol Flynn films, inspired by the actor’s swashbuckling moves. But Tausig was inspired to fencing after his father clipped out a June 1983 New York Times article about fencing maestro Giorgio Santelli. “I read that article and I thought, ‘I want to meet that guy, he really seems interesting,’” Tausig later recalled. After several weeks, the shy 12-year-old worked up his courage, looked Santelli up in the phone book, and called the legendary sportsman, rewarded with an invitation to meet in person.
The article that catapulted Tausig towards his fencing métier.
Tausig rode his bike to Santelli’s street on the appointed afternoon. “We started talking,” he recalled,
“The next thing I knew, he had me advancing and retreating in the street. He was teaching me the basics of fencing. A couple of minutes after that, he looked at me and said, ‘you’re going to be my new student.’”
Justin’s Story
For the next several years, Tausig fenced under Santelli’s tutelage. But it was during his switch from foil to epée that the maestro provided some advice. “He told me that if I wanted to find out how good I could be, I needed to go to where the best were,” Tausig remembered. “He was very specific. There were two places he wanted me to check out: Paris or Milan.”
Long after Santelli passed away, Tausig made the decision to go to Paris to put himself to the test. After obtaining his bachelor’s degree in archeology from New York University, Tausig reached out to historic Racing Club de France, the legendary home of numerous Olympic and championship-winning fencers, to ask for permission to go train with them. He received a positive response.
Tausig in action. Photo: Justin Tausig.
That’s how, in August 1993, Tausig moved to Paris to find out how good a fencer he could be and embarked on an eleven-year career with Racing Club.
The culture shock was enormous on numerous levels. “I was at a totally different place, with a totally different language,” he said. Although he took French during high school and college, his U.S. language courses had not prepared him for interacting en français in meaningful ways. Moreover, he did not have a support system. “I knew one person in the entire country,” he admitted, “I had to build all of that from the ground up.”
He followed advice received from his family doctor to integrate with the local population as much as possible. So, he found an apartment in a residential Parisian area, and asked his Racing Club colleagues to speak to him in French, and to correct him, so that he could truly learn the language.
“There were a lot of people I met who very much appreciated the fact that I was making an effort because I was not there to be an American in Paris. I was there to become a Parisian.”
The fencing, too, was entirely different. “‘Going from the United States to France for fencing was like going from a little league baseball team to going to spring training with the New York Yankees,” he related.
“The level of seriousness, of execution, even the recreational fencers would crush you without thinking about it because it’s in the blood. It’s what they do. France is a country with the largest ratio of fencers to population of any country in the world…everyone had a connection with it because it’s part of the national consciousness.”
The Sports Diplomacy Connection
Tausig during his induction to the U.S. Fencing Hall of Fame 2020. Photo: Justin Tausig.
As the only American fencer with Racing Club de France, Tausig engaged in informal sports diplomacy on an everyday basis. He learned from his teammates, but also exchanged with them about his home country, culture, and customs. “I felt like an ambassador even before I heard the term sports diplomacy,” he confided. “I took the role seriously.” It was a mantra inspired and instilled by his parents, who from an early age had schooled him to be sensitive to other people, cultures, and traditions. “I always wanted to handle myself a certain way in practice and competition,” he related.
With fellow Racing Club members, Tausig talked about history, politics, and cultural differences. “It was very interesting to have those conversations,” he said. “I felt that they enriched my experience, and I’m thankful to my club mates.”
Due to competition rules that mandated the participant’s last name and country origin on the back of their fencing jacket, “Tausig, USA” was part of his branded identity while competing for Racing Club de France. It presaged his time with Team USA, where he was a World Cup medalist and Hall of Fame Class of 2020 inductee.
“Moving to Paris was truly the best decision I ever made in my life,” he said. “It changed my view of the world and myself. Being there changed everything for me, not just my fencing, but me.”
You can follow Justin on Twitter (@DrJustinTausig) and Instagram (@DrJustinTausig).
Mapping the Connection
From New York, New York to Paris, France
Further Reading/Resources
[E] “Q&A with Certified Mental Performance Consultant Justin Tausig,” USA Fencing, June 10, 2020.
[E] “UWS Graduate Named to USA Fencing Hall of Fame,” July 10, 2019
[E] Justin Tausig, “My Maestro,” American Fencing, Vol. 37, No. 1, September/October 1985, p6-8.
How to Cite This Entry
Krasnoff, Lindsay Sarah. “Voices: Justin Tausig,” FranceAndUS, https://www.franceussports.com/voices/033-justin-tausig. (date of consultation).