USA Fencing

US Fencing is pleased to announce the hiring of national weapon coaches for all weapons. These coaches have been selected to coach and lead the national team programs for the United States Fencing Association with the ultimate goal of medal performances in the London Olympics in 2012 and beyond

Returning from the last quadrienniel are Ed Korfanty for Women's Saber and Yury Gelman for Men's Saber. Each of these coaches need no introduction and they have both had previous medal results in the Beijing or the Athens Olympics and bring the highest level of coaching experience and expertise to the National Team Program.

Newly hired coaches include:

Anthony (Buckie) Leach - Women's Foil

Roberto Solbavarro - Women's Epee

Each of the newly hired coaches bring outstanding previous experience with international fencing at all levels including world cups, world championships and the Olympics.

Buckie Leach held this same position previously for the USFA and was the one of the pioneer coaches in Women's Foil producing world champions and many individual results with his teams and his athletes. He was also the women's foil Olympic coach in Atlanta, Sydney, and Athens for the USA and brings the National Team Program excellent international experience and outstanding personal character. We are truly honored to have Buckie join the National Team Program.

Roberto Solbavarro has also previously been the National Coach for Women's Epee for the USFA and most recently was the coach who led the Junior National Team to a world championship in 2008 and a second place in 2009. His teams and students have consistently placed internationally and recently one of his students won the USA National Championship in Women's Epee.

Mauro Hamza has been involved in Men's foil ever since being an international competitor for Egypt when he was an athlete. He has been a frequent team coach for the Men's Foil Program on international trips and his students and teams have won numerous medals both domestically and internationally. The National Team Program will benefit from his fair and calm demeanor, tactical and technical expertise and ability to work with athletes and coaches from all over the USA.

Sebastien Dos Santos has been involved in fencing and modern pentathlon his entire life. He has coached and competed in pentathlon in France and Brazil and was the Olympic Pentathlon coach for Brazil in 2008 and for France in 2004. His depth of experience in coaching and international epee fencing is outstanding and he has medal level experience coaching epee teams at the world championship level. We are excited to have his expertise as the Men's Epee coach