Eli Dershwitz

Early life and education

Dershwitz was born and raised in Sherborn, Massachusetts. He has an older brother named Phil Dershwitz, whose recruitment to the Princeton University fencing team marked the last time Harvard fencing made the top 3 at the NCAA championships. His parents are Renee Goetzler and Mark Dershwitz. His maternal grandparents, both Holocaust survivors, were Ruth (née Schmukler) Goetzler (born in Tarnów, Poland, she survived the Holocaust hidden in a barn by a Polish farmer) and Mark Goetzler (born in Jasło, Poland, he also lived in Samarkand, Uzbekistan). His paternal grandparents were Arthur Dershwitz and Tillie (née Segel) Dershwitz. He has an older brother (Phil, who fenced for Princeton University) and a twin sister (Sally, who competed in gymnastics and lacrosse).

Dershwitz played basketball and soccer up until the end of middle school. He attended Dover-Sherborn High School, graduating in 2014.

He is a student at Harvard University, where he is majoring in history. He is a member of the varsity Harvard Crimson fencing team. As a freshman in 2014-15, he was a First Team All-American, All-Ivy League, and finished third at the NCAA Fencing Championships with a 22-2 record. He was the seventh Harvard fencer to compete in the Olympics, with the prior two having been Emily Cross '09 (Team USA) and Noam Mills '12 (Israel), who both competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Dershwitz took off the 2015–16 school year to train full-time for the Olympics.

Fencing career

Dershwitz was ranked number 1 in saber in the United States, and number 10 in the world, as of the summer of 2016. In March 2016, US Olympic saber coach Zoran Tulum said: "Eli’s world ranking is remarkable... he is the youngest [saber] fencer among the world’s top 25."

He followed his older brother into fencing. Dershwitz has been coached since 2004 when he was 9 years old by Tulum, at the Zeta Fencing club in Natick, Massachusetts. Tulum will coach the US men’s saber team in the 2016 Olympics.

In February 2016, Dershwitz beat Russia's 2015 world champion Alexey Yakimenko at the Warsaw World Cup. In March 2016, while winning the gold medal at the Seoul Grand Prix in South Korea, he defeated 2014 world silver medalist Gu Bon-gil of Korea in the quarterfinals, 2014 world champion Nikolay Kovalev of Russia in the semifinals, and Iranian Mojtaba Abedini in the final.

In February 2017, Dershwitz won the individual saber Ivy League Championship. In March 2017, he won the individual saber in the 2017 NCAA Fencing Championships, and was again named a first-team All-American. In May 2017, Dershwitz won a silver medal at the Villa de Madrid, his first individual world cup medal. By that time he had already won two gold and three silver team world cup medals from 2014-16, three junior world championships medals, a Pan American Games gold medal in 2015, and a grand prix gold medal in 2016. In June 2017 he won an individual saber silver medal at the 2017 Pan American Fencing Championships. In July 2017 won the gold medal in sabre at the 2017 Maccabiah Games.

US Championship competitions

In March 2013, Dershwitz was the top-ranked US junior saber fencer. In April 2014, Dershwitz won the US Men's Saber National Championship, becoming the youngest-ever US senior men's saber champion. As of July 1, 2016, he was ranked #1 in the United States, ahead of teammate Daryl Homer.

World Championship competitions

Dershwitz was the 2015 Under-20 World Saber Champion. He is the only American men's saber fencer to win a world title. He is a five-time Junior World Fencing Championships and Cadet World Championships team member.

He won a silver medal at the 2012 Junior World Championships, a bronze medal at the 2013 Junior World Championships, and the gold medal at the 2015 Junior World Fencing Championships—the first title for a US men’s saber fencer at the junior world championships. In March 2013, Dershwitz was the number-two-ranked world junior saber fencer.

In 2013, Dershwitz fenced in men's sabre at the 2013 World Fencing Championships, where he finished 36th after a 15-12 loss to Matyas Szabo (Germany). He was also the youngest member of the US national team in 2013, at 17 years of age. Dershwitz also competed in men's sabre at the 2014 World Fencing Championships in Kazan, Russia, in men's sabre at the 2015 World Fencing Championships in Moscow, Russia, and in the 2016 Senior Team World Championships in Rio de Janeiro.

Pan American Games and Pan American Championships

Dershwitz is a four-time Pan-American Champion. He won individual gold medals at the 2014 Pan American Fencing Championships in San Jose, Costa Rica, and the 2015 Pan American Fencing Championships in Santiago, Chile. He also won team gold medals in the 2013 Pan American Fencing Championships in Cartagena, Colombia, and the 2016 Pan American Fencing Championships in Panama City, Panama.

Dershwitz also won gold medals in both individual and team saber in fencing at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada.

Olympics

Dershwitz represented the United States in fencing at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 10. He qualified by being in the top 14 of the FIE adjusted official ranking list, and was the youngest member of the US Olympic fencing team. He said, "I am excited to represent my country... at a sporting event that brings the entire world together in peace." Commenting on having watched the last Olympics from home as a teenager, Dershwitz said "just to think that in three short years ... it can go from watching on a computer screen ... screaming in my pajamas at 3 in the morning to actually being on the biggest stage in sports, it’s so hard to picture. But now it’s all I think about."

Dershwitz fenced Seppe van Holsbeke of Belgium in the opening round of the Olympics men’s sabre competition. He lost 15-12 to Van Holsbeke, who advanced to the Round of 16.

He returned to Harvard University as a sophomore six days after the 2016 Summer Olympics closing ceremony.