Sport Fencing Name Johan Harmenberg | Height 1.79 m | |
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Born 8 September 1954 (age 69) ( 1954-09-08 ) Stockholm, Sweden Education Massachusetts Institute of Technology Olympic medals Fencing at the 1980 Summer Olympics - Men's Epee, Individual | ||
Johan Harmenberg (born 8 September 1954, in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish epee fencer. Harmenberg completed two years of study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1975, leaving his course early (he would have graduated in 1977) before returning to Sweden, having been drafted by the Swedish army.
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Fencing career
He has won eight individual and/or team epee gold medals at Olympic, World Championships, and World Cup competitions.
World Championships
He earned his World Championship titles in Individual Épée and Team Épée events at the 1977 competitions in Buenos Aires.
He also won a bronze medal in Team Épée at the 1979 World Championships in Hamburg.
World Cups
Harmenberg captured three Individual Épée World Cup Championships within four years: 1977 (Bern), 1979 (Heidenheim), and 1980 (Heidenheim). He also won team titles at the 1977 and 1980 World Cups.
Olympics
At the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games, he won a gold medal in the Individual Épée. In three of the final matches he won by only one touch. He is the only Swede to have won an individual gold medal in fencing. Harmenberg was a member of the Swedish épée team as well; the team placed 5th in the team épée competition.
Hall of Fame
Harmenberg, who is Jewish, was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1997.
Scholarship
Harmenberg co-authored scientific papers entitled "Fencing: Biomedical and Psychological Factors," "Comparison of different tests of fencing performance" (1991), and "Physiological and morphological characteristics of world class fencers" (1990).
Harmenberg has since had a distinguished career in medical pharmacology, publishing a variety of papers relating to viral immunology. After stints as VP of pharmaceutical development at Medivir, Chief Medical officer at Algeta ASA, is currently (2014) Medical Director and VP of clinical development at Axelar AB in Stockholm, Sweden.
Johan co-authored "Épée 2.0: The Birth of the New Fencing Paradigm", and "Épée 2.5: The New Paradigm Revised and Augmented" In these books, he describes the new fencing paradigm that he developed with Maestro Eric Sollee, from MIT, which resulted in his victories and a transformation in how Épée is fenced at the higher levels of competition.