Ana Maria Brânză (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈaːna maˈʀiːa ˈbrɨn.zə], born 26 November 1984, current name Ana Maria Popescu) is a Romanian épée fencer. She earned the silver medal in the individual épée event at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games and the gold medal in the 2013 European Fencing Championships. She won the women's épée World Cup series a record-equalling three times (2007–08, 2008–09, and 2012–13), with thirteen World Cup titles to her name. With the Romanian team she was twice World champion (2010 and 2011) and six-times European champion (2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2014, and 2015).

Brânză was born in 1984 in the Rahova district of Bucharest, the second of two children. A very energetic child, she was pushed by her parents towards sport. She first tried tennis because the courts were not far from home, but she left after one year because she was the only left-handed player and because of the lack of competitive events. When she was ten, her elder brother Marius, who played football for a school team of CSA Steaua București, took her to his club's fencing hall in Ghencea. She did not care much for the idea at first, as she was not a fan of The Three Musketeers, but she was attracted to the sport as soon as she set foot in the fencing hall. She turned to épée because there was no other left-handed weapon available in the club when she began training.

Brânză became champion of Romania for her age group after only six months of training. She was noticed by national coach Dan Podeanu, who after a trial selected her for centralized training. At 13 years old, at the beginning of class VIII, she left her family and moved to Craiova to train at the Junior Olympic Centre for épée with other athletes, much of which were older than her. She pursued her studies at the Petrache-Trișcu Sports High School, which later gave her name to one of its alleys. The high school offers a specific curriculum for young athletes with three or four class hours a day, the rest being devoted to sport, but the sports facilities were in a rather run-down state in post-Ceaușescu Romania. For lack of a dedicated building, they first held their training sessions in the community hall of the high school. As there was no locker room, they had to change behind curtains.

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