Yury Gelman

Saber Coach

Maestro Yury Gelman was inducted Into U.S Fencing Hall Of Fame on July 10 at the 2010 Summer National Championships in Atlanta.

Yury is the six-time Olympic Coach for the United States (Sydney, Athens, Beijing, London, Rio and Tokyo), former National Men’s Saber Coach (2000-2012), and Head Fencing Coach for 2001 NCAA Champion St. John’s University. In addition, Yury is an honor coach of Ukraine.

He received a Masters degree in both Physical Education and fencing from Kiev Institute of Physical Education.

His students won gold, silver and bronze at Cadet and Junior World Championships and countless medals in junior and senior World Cups, including individual and team Grand Prizes. He prepared members of Cadet, Junior, and Senior National teams every year since 1995.

Yury’s students, Ivan Lee and Tim Hagamen, were the first to bring a gold medal to the United States in the 2001 Junior World Championships. In 1998 another student, Akhi Spencer-El, was the first US fencer to place first in junior FIE point standings and in 2003 his student, Keeth Smart, was the first US fencer to place first in the senior FIE point standings. Keeth is still the only American who won the individual Grand Prize in Madrid 2003.

The U.S. National Team, under Yury’s leadership, won the 2001 Gdansk Junior World Championships, the 2004 team Grand Prize, 4th Place at 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, 5th place at the 2005 Leipzicg Senior World Championship, Silver Medal at the 2008 Bejing Olympic Games (Keeth Smart, Tim Morehouse, James Williams, Jason Rogers), 4 of his students (Tim Morehouse, Daryl Homer, James Williams and Dagmara Wozniak) participated in London Olympics and three of them reached top 8 in individual competitions.

In Rio Olympics, Daryl Homer won the individual silver medal and Dagmara Wozniak & Monica Aksamit received a bronze medal in team competitions.

Over the past twenty-eight years, Yury has prepared 33 students for the United States National Teams.

Notable Students

Akhi Spencer El – Member of Olympic team ’00, Sydney, two-time National Champion.

Keeth Smart – Three-time member of Olympic teams ’00, ’04, and ’08.Silver medalist ’08 Olympics.

Ivan Lee – Member of Olympic team 2004, Junior World Champion 2001, Pan Am Champion ’03.

Tim Hagamen – Junior World Champion 2001, Silver Medal at Cadet World Championships ’01.2006 NCAA Champion and 2007 National Champion.

Tim Morehouse – Member of Olympic team ’04, ’08, 12, Silver medalist ’08 Olympics. 8 place in London Olympics, Medalist at Senior World Cups.2010,2011 National Champion.

Oleck Ochocki – Bronze Medalist at Junior World Championships ’10, Member of Cadet ’05, ’06, ’07, Junior ’07, ’10 and Senior ’13 National Teams. Two-time NCAA Champion ’09, ’12.

Daryl Homer – Member of Olympic Team ’12, 6 place in London Olympics & Silver medal in Rio Olympics, Silver individual medal at senior World Championships in 2015, Bronze Medal at Cadet World Championships ’07, Bronze Medal at Junior World Championships ’09 and ’10. Two time NCAA Champion, ’10, ’11.

Dagmara Wozniak – Member of Olympic team ’08,’12,16,20. Bronze medal in Rio Olympics, 6 place in London Olympics, senior Team World champion in 2014Junior, World Champion 2006 and Bronze ’07, Three times bronze medalist of Senior World Championships.

Caroline Vloka – Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal at Cadet and Junior World Championships ’06, Bronze ‘07.2010 NCAA Champion.

Emma Baratta – Silver Medal at World Championships ’04.

Monica Aksamit – Bronze medalist at team in Rio Olympics, Silver medalist at Junior World Championships ’08. Member of Cadet ’07,Junior ’08, ’09 and Senior National team ‘09.

Alex Krul – Bronze Medal at Junior World Championships ’05.

James Williams – Member of Olympic team ’08, ’12. Silver medalist of Olympic Games ’08, Member of ’06,’09 and ’10 Senior National team. 2012 National Champion.

Paul Apostol – Two times World Veterans Champion (60+) in ’06,’07 and silver medalist ’08. National Champion ’05,’07 and ’10.

Elizabeth Tartakovsky– Bronze medalist at cadet World Championships in 2016, Bronze at Junior World in 2017 and Silver medalist at Junior World in 2018. Qualified for Junior World Championship in 2020. Bronze medalist at NCAA championship in 2019 and sparring partner for 2020 Olympics.