USA Fencing

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — James Melcher OLY, a 1972 Olympian and Class of 2013 member of the USA Fencing Hall of Fame, died on April 17 in New York. He was 83.

Melcher learned to fence at Columbia University, from which he graduated in 1961; earned gold medals at the Pan American Games in 1963 and 1971; and was a back-to-back national champion in men’s epee in 1971 and 1972. And that was before he represented Team USA at the 1972 Games in Munich.

Melcher had already accumulated enough points to make the 1972 Olympic team when he took to the strip to defend his national title in men’s epee on July 5, 1972, at Bentley College in Massachusetts (now Bentley University). But his competitive nature compelled him to go for the trophy anyway.

In the finals, Melcher, then 32, injured his left ankle. 

“The doctor came up and examined me and told me it might be a possible hairline fracture,” Melcher later told The New York Times. “It hurt like heck, but I just tried to ignore it.”

That seemed to work. Melcher defeated the Makler brothers, first Brooke and then Todd, to capture his second championship.

“I seriously thought of withdrawing after I got hurt,” Melcher told The Times. “But I wanted that second straight title very badly.”

After ending his elite fencing career in 1974, Melcher founded a successful hedge fund called Balestra Capital — named for (what else) a fencing move in which a fencer jumps forward and lunges. 

Both on the strip and off, Melcher possessed an uncanny ability to predict what was coming next. In fencing, that meant anticipating his opponent’s next move to successfully defend and find the perfect moment to attack. In investing, that meant practically seeing the future. 

In the first quarter of the year 2000, Melcher and his firm pulled their money out of the tech market, even though it was still booming at the time. The now-unforgettable bust came soon after. Seven years later, Melcher repeated this “trick,” this time anticipating the mortgage crisis of 2007.

“Sometimes a small defeat leads to a greater victory,” Melcher told Columbia College Today in 2008. “It’s clear to those who really understand the nature of investing: Most people make investing decisions emotionally, and that’s what trips them up. It is no surprise that the world’s greatest fencers have no emotions while they compete.”

Despite his stoicness while wearing the fencing mask, Melcher wasn’t cold once the final touch was scored.

“Jamie was kind, soft spoken and treated others with respect — even opponents,” Jack Lee wrote in an article in the January 2021 edition of American Fencing magazine. “After a bout, win or lose, he was always gracious. That was one of the things that attracted me to this sport in the first place. It was a sport of honor and sportsmanship. You win by your skill and cunning and strategy and not by brute force.”

Melcher was an Olympian in 1972, first alternate in 1976 and second alternate in 1980. He was a Pan American Games team member in 1963 and in 1971 won the team gold in epee. He was a member of the Senior Worlds Team five times (1965, 1970, 1971, 1973 and 1977) and was one of the first American fencers to achieve significant international results, including a bronze at Martini and Rossi NYC in 1973.

Even when Melcher’s elite career ended, his love of fencing never ceased. He was chairman of the Fencers Club for a decade beginning in the late 1970s and again beginning in 2006. The club, located on West 33rd Street in New York City, is a New York institution and regularly produces Olympians and world team members.

“We have would-be Olympians and a proud Olympic tradition but we also have those who simply use it to stay sharp mentally and physically,” Melcher said in the Columbia College Today story. “I had stopped fencing for a time, but I came back … and it instantly made me feel 10–15 years younger.”

In addition to serving in an important leadership role for Fencers Club, Melcher was an active philanthropist, financially supporting the club and its mission.

In 2018, Melcher’s generous $5 million donation helped achieve his dream that the Fencers Club have a permanent home by funding a significant portion of a new facility in Midtown Manhattan. His legacy of generosity and love for the sport snowballed, inspiring others to contribute their time and money to this life-changing sport.

To date, Melcher is the single most major donor in Fencers Club history.
“Jamie will be remembered by all of us for many things,” says Philippe Bennett, chair of the Fencers Club board. “Certainly his fencing talent, his business acumen, the lives he shaped — but perhaps most of all, for the kindness, generosity and authenticity through which he lived his life. The Fencers Club and fencing are far better because of Jamie.”

Melcher’s appearance on the 1972 Olympic team seems absolutely improbable when you learn that he didn’t fence until his freshman year of college.

Melcher was born on Nov. 5, 1939, in North Adams, Mass. He attended Mount Hermon High School and then Columbia University. (“I had lousy high school grades but good college boards, so Columbia took a chance on me,” he once said.)

While at Columbia, Melcher decided to give fencing a try simply because “every young guy wants to try to wave a sword.” But he quickly realized he had some significant ground to make up to reach the level of his Columbia teammates. 

“Many of the top fencers had been doing it since childhood, so starting your freshman year is tough,” he told Columbia College Today. 

Melcher wasn’t the most successful fencer at Columbia — he never reached the NCAA tournament — but, more importantly, he loved the sport very much.

The people he met while fencing, in turn, loved him right back. Family and friends remember his sense of humor, gentle kindness and love for fishing. 

As James Melcher's legacy continues, his contributions to the world of fencing and his philanthropic endeavors will always be remembered. The fencing community has lost a great mentor and role model, but his impact on the sport and the lives he touched will live on.