Four years ago on August 7, NJIT men's fencing alum Henrique Marques'18 made his Olympic debut representing Brazil in Rio, competing in the individual fencing competition on and in the team event on August 12.

Original release posted on NJITHighlanders.com on 8.5.16

August 8: Marques dropped a 15-8 decision in the round of 64 of the men's foil competition against Mohamed Essam from Egypt.  Marques will compete in the men's foil team event on August 12.

Henrique Marques, who was entering his junior year as a member of the NJIT men's fencing team, made his Olympic debut in the individual fencing competition on August 7 and in the team event on August 12.

As a rising foil fencer on the international scene, Marques qualified for the Olympic team in 2015 and in September, he made the top 4 in the national rankings. Marques, whose hometown is São Paulo, Brazil, was currently ranked second in Brazil.

"Qualifying for the Olympics was always my goal since I was a child and that is what I trained for," Marques says. "It is definitely one of the best feelings in the world, to have such a high goal and be able to achieve it so early in my career as an athlete. I felt that everything I trained for was paying off."

Marques trained (physically and fencing) for the Olympics with his Brazilian club, Esporte Clube Pinheiros and teammates in São Paulo.

When asked if he was nervous about competing in the Olympics, Marques responded: "I think that at some point this whole thing about Olympics just became part of my routine. I spend most of my day in the fencing room, with other athletes that also qualified and I don't know exactly how to explain, but it just feels normal. But I guess this feeling will change as soon as I get in the Olympic Village with all the other athletes and Olympic atmosphere."

Earlier this year, Marques was among the NJIT school-record six fencers representing the Highlanders in the 2016 NCAA National Championships, where he placed 17^th on the men's foil strip.