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George Kolombatovich (1946-2018) was an American fencing Hall-of-Fame coach, referee, and former fencing master for the Metropolitan Opera. [1]
Kolombatovich was the son of Yugoslavian immigrant, Oscar, born in Flushing, Queens in 1946. He grew up fencing from the age of 5 at one point receiving instruction from world renown fencing master, Giorgio Santelli. He was a talented fencer in his own right winning many championships in his youth. He went on to fence for the NYU Violets for two years before joining the Army. His competitive career ended with a back injury caused by a car accident.
Kolombatovich spent a short time as an assistant fencing coach at NYU. This was before his hiring as an assistant coach for the Columbia Lions fencing team in 1978. The following year he took over as head coach. He would hold the position for 33 years becoming one of the longest tenured coaches in NCAA history. [2] During his tenure his teams won 5 national championships producing 17 individual titles. Two fencers, Erinn Smart and James Leighman Williams, went on to win silver medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Along with his prolific coaching career, Kolombatovich was an avid referee. He refereed at three olympic games, and was on the FIE officiating board from 2000 to 2008 including a stint as president. He revolutionized refereeing as he created a new grading system to judge referees, which is still used today.
Kolombatovich died on September 19, 2018, in Sarasota, Florida, from acute respiratory distress syndrome. [1]
Vladimir Aliverovich Nazlymov is a Soviet-born former sabre fencer, and coach for the USSR and later the United States, to which he moved in 1991. As a colonel in the Soviet Red Army, he won three team Olympic sabre gold medals, and was the head coach of the Soviet Union Military Fencing Team for 14 years. He then coached in the United States, notably for Ohio State University, from which he retired in lieu of termination during an NCAA investigation that found him guilty of aggravated level I violations, sanctioned him, and vacated a number of records of the team and its members. He now serves as a coach at the Nazlymov Fencing Foundation, which was founded by his son and daughter-in-law.
Edward Korfanty is a Polish-born American fencing master, U.S. National Women's saber coach, Olympic saber coach, and a former Men's Veterans Saber World Champion.
MaestroGiorgio Santelli was a fencer and fencing master who was part of the Italian team that won the gold medal in Men's team sabre at the 1920 Summer Olympics and was the largest mid-20th century influence in raising the quality and popularity of fencing in the United States, and creator of one of the best-known fencing equipment manufacturers.
Soren Hunter Miles S Thompson is an American épée fencer, team world champion, and two-time Olympian. He represented the United States in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, where he reached the quarterfinals and came in 7th, the best US result in the event since 1956 and at the time the second-best US result of all time. He also represented the US in the 2012 Olympics in London. Thompson won a gold medal and world championship in the team épée event at the 2012 World Fencing Championships. He was inducted into the USA Fencing Hall of Fame in 2018, and the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2020.
Byron Lester Krieger was an American foil, sabre and épée fencer. Krieger represented the United States in the Olympics in 1952 in Helsinki and 1956 in Melbourne, and in the 1951 Pan American Games where he won two gold medals.
Julia Jones-Pugliese was an American national champion foil and épée fencer and fencing coach.
George Gabriel Masin is an American Olympic épée fencer who attended New York University from 1964 to 1968.
NYU Violets is the nickname of the sports teams and other competitive teams at New York University. The school colors are purple and white. Although officially known as the Violets, the school mascot is a bobcat. The Violets compete as a member of NCAA Division III in the University Athletic Association conference. The university sponsors 23 varsity sports, as well as club teams and intramural sports.
Stefano Cerioni is an Italian foil fencer, Olympic team champion in 1984, Olympic champion in 1988 and World team champion in 1985 and 1994. He became a fencing master, then a director of foil, first for Italy, then for Russia, then again for Italy.
George Piller was an Olympic and world champion fencer from Hungary in the 1920s and 1930s who became an internationally respected world-class fencing master in Hungary and the United States in the 1950s.
Daniel Bukantz was an American four-time individual United States national foil fencing champion, Maccabiah Games individual foil champion, four-time Olympic fencer, fencing referee, and a dentist. He has been inducted into the United States Fencing Hall of Fame, the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
Joseph Levis was an American foil fencer. He won nine national fencing championships, and participated in three Olympic Games representing the United States. The Roll of Honor at the US Fencing Hall of Fame (USFA) credits his individual Olympic silver medal in foil (1932) as the finest accomplishment ever by an American fencer and his victory in the 1954 nationals, after a 16-year layoff from competition, as the greatest comeback in the history of American fencing.
Tănase Mureșanu is a Romanian foil fencer.
Steve Mormando is an American fencer. He competed in the individual and team sabre events at the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Summer Olympics. He was the national champion in sabre in 1987. He is also a successful fencing coach, a career which started in 1981. He represented the United States at four Senior World Championships. Mormando's Sabre Teammates at the Olympics include Peter Westbrook, Michael Lofton, Robert “Bobby” Cottingham, Phil Reilly, Joel Glucksman, Paul Friedberg, and John Friedberg. He is also a member of the Fencers Club in New York (USA).
Tamer Tahoun is an Egyptian foil fencer and one of the head coaches at Star Fencing Academy near Boston, MA.
Akhnaten Spencer-El is an American sabre fencer. He competed in the individual sabre event at the 2000 Summer Olympics, finishing 34th. Akhnaten Spencer-El joined the Columbia University fencing coaching staff in September 2013. He served as a coach for the United States in the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Nicole Ross is an American foil fencer. Fencing for the Columbia Lions fencing team, she won the 2010 NCAA individual women's foil title, and was a three time All-American. At the 2012 Summer Olympics she competed in individual women's foil, coming in 25th, while in the team event she and her teammates came in sixth. At the 2018 World Championships, she and Team USA won the gold medal in the women's team foil event.
The Columbia Lions fencing team is the intercollegiate fencing team for Columbia University located in Manhattan, New York City. The team competes in the Ivy League within Division I of the NCAA. The university first fielded a team in 1898, under the leadership of coach James Murray. The team is currently coached by Michael Aufrichtig.
Stephen Matias Kovacs was an American saber fencer and fencing coach. He was a three-time NCAA All American for Columbia University, four-time All-Ivy League, and the first fencer to win four consecutive Intercollegiate Fencing Association championships. As a fencing coach, he then coached at the Pingry School, Princeton Junior School, Stevens Institute of Technology, Duke University, Ridge High School, and private fencing clubs including one that he founded. In October 2021 he was arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, and false swearing, and imprisoned in the Somerset County Jail in Somerville, New Jersey. On October 29, 2021, the United States Center for SafeSport temporarily suspended Kovacs, pending an investigation by it of allegations against him. On January 15, 2022, Kovacs committed suicide in Somerset County Jail.
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