Yang Wins a Silver Medal at Jr. Pan American Games

Scarsdale High School rising sophomore Iris Yang won a silver medal for Team USA in fencing at the 2025 Junior Pan American Games, the largest junior sports event in the continent in Asuncion, Paraguay.

The 2025 Junior Pan American Games is a multi-sports event that was held from August 9 to August 23rd, for athletes aged under 23 in the Americas. Over 4,000 athletes from 41 countries competed in 28 sports.

Athletes from 15 countries participated in the Foil Fencing event. Iris came out of the pool with almost perfect scores: 5:0, 5:1, 5:0, 5:0 which advanced her directly to the quarter final in the direct elimination rounds. She won the quarter final with a 15:6 against fencer representing Peru. In the semi-finals, she defeated a strong opponent from Brazil with a 15:7. In the gold medal competition she faced a Chilean fencer and barely lost with a 10:15.

Overall, the USA fencing team won two silver and two bronze medals for Team USA.

Iris started fencing (Foil) at age the seven with Coach Slava Grigoriev at Tim Morehouse Fencing Club in Port Chester. She is a nationally ranked fencer who finished with top results at national and international fencing tournaments, including a gold medal in a Junior Team event at the Junior Olympics in February 2024 in Charlotte, NC, a silver medal in Youth 14 at the Summer Nationals in July 2024 in Columbus, OH, and a 10th place in a Division 1 event at the North American Cup in February 2025 in Charlotte, NC.