María Belén Pérez Maurice

María Belén Pérez Maurice (born July 12, 1985) is an Argentinian sabre fencer, Pan American champion in 2014. She was the only representative of the sport from Argentina at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Career

Pérez Maurice started fencing at the age of thirteen at the instigation of her mother, who was herself an amateur fencer. She did not like the sport at first, but took an interest after her first victory. She trained at the Círculo Militar in Buenos Aires–her father is a colonel in the Argentine Army– under Lucas Saucedo, who remains her coach as of 2014.

She first fenced foil, a weapon in which she reached the quarter-finals at the 2006 Buenos Aires World Cup, then switched to sabre for the 2006–07 season. She began a career as a fashion model parallel to her sport career, but had to abandon it for lack of time. In 2011, she won two satellite tournaments and earned a bronze medal at the Pan American Championships in Reno, Nevada. These results allowed her to qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics as one of the top two fencers from the American zone. She is the first Argentinian to gain Olympic access through FIE rankings. She lost 15–12 in the first round to Italy's Gioia Marzocca and finished 21st. In the 2013–14 season she won the gold medal at the Pan American Championships in San José after defeating Olympic champion Mariel Zagunis in the final. She finished the season No.21 in world rankings, a career best.

Pérez Maurice studied food engineering at the Universidad Argentina de la Empresa.

María Belén won the bronze medal at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada.