Success in Root’s reach

As the daughter of a politician and Las Vegas sports handicapper, Dakota Root was encouraged to never stop exercising her mind and body, and to try as many sports as she could fit into an already demanding schedule.

Root, 17, seemingly tried them all, from swimming to gymnastics to soccer to tennis to becoming a black belt in karate. Only fencing pushed her as much mentally as it did physically.

Each fencing match is different. Some opponents charge, some stand back and some try something in between. Dakota likes to size up her opponent before settling on a strategy.

For her, it's a sport that overlaps politics through its combination of providing fierce competition and forcing each participant to be intellectually nimble.

"Every time you fence, you have to keep changing your game," Dakota said. "You can't just rely on your skills. You have to rely on growing within the bout. You don't do that in most other sports."

Dakota has been in the sport only four years, but she is considering attending college at Ivy League fencing powerhouses such as Harvard and Columbia as well as Duke, Northwestern and Notre Dame. There appears to be reciprocal interest.

Dakota's father, 2008 Libertarian Party vice presidential candidate Wayne Allyn Root, said he refuses to push her in any direction -- in her choice of school or a sport.

The son of a Brooklyn butcher, Root said he regrets his parents not allowing him to play organized sports and choose his college. They wanted him to attend Columbia. End of discussion.

Root regards his four years at Columbia, where he and President Obama were in the same graduating class but did not know each other, as a miserable experience.

"I never put any pressure on (Dakota) because my parents put pressure on me," he said.

But Dakota's parents have high expectations, and they are adamant about home-schooling. Root is convinced that approach is why Dakota is a straight-A student who takes advanced-placement classes in U.S. history as well as literature and composition.

She has achieved scores of 2,240 on the Scholastic Achievement Test (Dakota still hopes to break 2,300) and 31 on the American College Test.

Getting a fencing scholarship would help, and she will have the chance to impress college coaches at the Summer Nationals from July 3 to 12 at Grapevine, Texas.

She understands what is on the line at that tournament.

"It can get to you," Dakota said. "That's part of the game. You have to get your mind over these big hurdles."

She showed an early aptitude for fencing, winning a handicapped version of an event on her first try. Dakota won without a handicap the following year.

Last November she traveled to Germany and Austria for 16-and-under World Cup tournaments. Dakota fenced especially well in Germany, making the fourth round of pool play.

Showing that performance was no fluke, Dakota in April won under-19 epee at the Pacific Coast Championships in Long Beach, Calif. She was second in the senior epee, which was open to all ages.

That's a head-turning rise through the ranks for a relative newcomer. It's also a rise that could continue, perhaps even to the Olympic Games, with 2016 as the likely target.

Her coach, Yves Auriol, at The Fencing Academy of Nevada isn't ready to call Dakota a future Olympian, but doesn't rule it out. Auriol is a four-time U.S. Olympic coach and is in the sport's Hall of Fame.

"When (Dakota) came here, she did not know much," Auriol said. "In three years she has made a giant step. The reason is she's a hard worker. She's not a big girl (5 feet 5 inches), but she's fast."

Root hopes Dakota's most important work comes away from fencing.

Then known more for picking sports' winners and losers, Root became the Libertarians' surprise vice presidential candidate after Dakota's presidential nominating speech at the party's convention last May in Denver.

Dakota prepared her father in other ways, too, sometimes taking opposite sides of discussions just to push him to defend his beliefs.

"When I tell you she's a good debater, it's because I'm a very good debater," said Root, who won nearly all straw polls on Libertarian Party presidential debates. "She can out-debate me on almost any topic."

While Root hopes to be the Libertarian nominee for president in 2012 and move it closer to inclusion with the big two that dominate the country's politics, he knows the party is far from being on equal footing with the Democrats and Republicans. He sees the party's future in Dakota, even comparing himself to how Joseph Kennedy laid the groundwork for his son to become president.

"I think Dakota's got a great shot to be the first female Jewish president of the United States," Root said. "She really is the real thing."

Dakota called herself "a proud Libertarian" in her Denver speech, which is on YouTube, but just as she does in fencing, she wants to remain open to many possibilities.

There still are too many possible moves to size up.

"I haven't made up my mind," Dakota said. "Am I a Republican? Am I a Democrat? Am I Libertarian? Am I conservative or liberal or progressive? You need people who passionately argue for what they believe in."

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914.