Episode 17: Peet Sasaki

If you say the name “Peet Sasaki” to a group of fencers, they might look at you with a baffled expression on their face… although admittedly for some that’s just their natural look. If, however, you ask them who “FRED“ is, nearly every single one will be able to give you an answer. The name FRED is as ubiquitous a name to a fencer as HAL is to a sci-fi fan.

FRED is the Fencing Results and Events Database and Peet Sasaki is its creator. It’s what *everyone* uses to sign up for local and regional tournaments. Nearly every fencer in this country has an account there. If you do, you have a record of every event you have ever fenced. It’s an amazingly huge database. It’s currently being phased out by USFencing’s new system but will continue in the near future to fulfill the role Peet set out for it from the beginning: 1) To let people pre-register for fencing tournaments in an effort to help both fencers and organizers have a more pleasant experience. Imagine being a tournament organizer and not know exactly how many fencers to expect! Or being a fencer and driving several hours to an event, to discover only three people showed up… 2) Maintaining the record of every bout fenced in every event in every tournament in the country.

FRED helped with those issues and many more.

Tune in today to hear how a glass blower, sculptor, and eventual Google employee became synonymous with fencing tournament.

Listen here