Yuri Gelman - the man who opened fencing for America

Photo: Pavel Terekhov

Yuri Gelman is a fencing coach. Born in Kyiv, graduated from the Institute of Physical Education, immigrated to the USA in 1991. Senior men's saber coach at Olympics in Sydney, Athens, Beijing and London. This year he plans to go with his students to Rio de Janeiro. He opened a private fencing school in New York and a charitable foundation whose goal is to teach fencing to children from low-income families for free.

Photo: Pavel Terekhov

If you look for information about him on the Internet, you will find little in Russian. But as soon as you write Yuriy Gelman in the search engine, there will immediately be hundreds of times more results. In the USA, the ex-Kiev resident is a real sports star. Moreover, it was thanks to him that fencing here became not just popular - from the last four Olympics, the American team under the leadership of Gelman returned with trophies.

I met with maestro ForumDaily at his fencing school in downtown Manhattan. Under the sound of sabers, swords and rapiers, Yuri told why he moved to America from his native Kiev, how he taught English in training and who of Hollywood stars brings children to his classes.

About immigration to the USA: “I was told that I would not find work in the States”

Photo: Pavel Terekhov

He received the title of Honored Coach of Ukraine, his students took first places in all-Union competitions, and Yuri Gelman did not complain about life in Kyiv. But in 1991 he decided to leave for America. Doctors identified complications in his daughter after Chernobyl and advised her to change the climate. The only person Yuri could go to was his sister in Philadelphia.

“I understood that it would be very difficult. Familiar trainers in America unanimously said: consider that you have no profession, fencing in the USA is practically undeveloped and you can’t earn money from it.”

Therefore, the maestro decided to change his specialty and even went to study at a local university. “Of course, there were always difficulties. First, I studied in Philadelphia for two semesters at the university, majoring in physical therapy. And although I had to study for another year, I left my studies because they finally offered me a job as a coach.”

A friend called Yuri to the New York Fencing Club, where the maestro first went three times a week from Philadelphia. And in parallel with the work he taught the language.

“The difficulties were with the language, but I forced my students to speak English with me and thus teach me.”

They are already saying that with the arrival of Yuri Gelman in America, the country received another sport. Of course, fencing existed here before, but only a few were involved in it. And the maestro did the impossible - less than ten years after moving, he became the national coach of the Olympic men's saber team at the Sydney Olympics. At the next one, in Athens, Gelman's students took fourth place, losing one blow to the French for reaching the final and then one blow to Russia for third place. But they returned from the Beijing Olympics with silver medals. Yuri remained in his coaching position during the Olympic Games in London, only he abandoned his current one - he says he will go to Rio de Janeiro as a personal trainer for several students. And he wants to take a little break from his busy sports schedule.

About fencing: “This is a unique sport - people start it at the age of four and can stay until a ripe old age.”

Photo: Pavel Terekhov

Yuri Gelman is a saber fencer, although he also fencing with epee and rapier. He says the difference is in the affected area. The first one can chop and stab only from the waist and up, and the last two are allowed to stab into the entire body.

Fencing is the same game of chess, where you need to think about what your opponent will do next and understand his psychology. The sport is considered elite, which is why doing it is not cheap. Most often the athlete himself pays; the state allocates a minimum amount of money. “Travel to competitions is expensive. Going to 5-7 competitions a year is already, consider, several thousand. And also equipment, individual lessons with a trainer - it turns out about 15-20 thousand a year.”

There is practically no doping used in fencing - Yuri Gelman says there is simply no point in it, it will not help in the fight. And tournaments are organized even for fencers of advanced age. “I have students who are 83 years old, fencing is one of the sports where official competitions are held among veterans, and it’s wonderful.”

About her school: “Sarah Jessica Parker brought her son to my classes”

Photo: Pavel Terekhov

Second floor of an office building in Manhattan, near Times Square. There are white walls, a special covering on the floor for comfortable and safe fencing, and flags in the colors of the American flag on the ceiling. Yuri Gelman opened this school in 2007. He says that he borrowed a lot of money, doubted it for a long time and finally made up his mind. He now has about 400 club members and nine coaches. “Most of them are from the former USSR, because our fencing school was the strongest back then. And only one is Italian.” The school is run by Yuri’s daughter, for whom he moved to the USA.

Photo: Pavel Terekhov

It turned out to be more difficult to train Americans than Ukrainians or Russians, Yuri notes. “It took time to understand that at first people just want to have fun, or “fan”, as they say here. So that they enjoy fencing. But when they have already seriously fallen in love with this business, you can make them work. With us, everything was different: the coach said - you have to do it. There’s no such thing here.” It’s easier with adults, says Gelman, because they know exactly what they want. The exception is Hollywood stars.

“Sarah Jessica Parker brought her son to practice, a couple of other celebrities, but they came and went, came and went. Stars, in my opinion, never know what they want, when a lot of money is hard.”

Only a few come to fencing having read Dumas’s novels or watched all the parts of “Pirates of the Caribbean”. The majority have a practical goal: to learn how to control a sword, rapier or saber in order to later enter a good university. Yuri Gelman explains: fencing is an elite sport and all Ivy League universities have their own team.

“This is the main goal, I would say. Because many universities help good athletes, and some have athletic scholarships, and students can generally study for free. For example, last year I have a girl at Harvard who entered Russian. A Russian boy entered the University of St. Johns on a full scholarship. ”

About the charity fund: “I want to give an opportunity to those who cannot pay for their lessons to practice fencing for free”

Photo: Pavel Terekhov

“Money is not everything. I think that in America I did everything I can do in terms of making money, I don’t need a million, I’m satisfied with what I have. But I see many talented children who can not afford to engage in fencing. That's what I want to help children. ”

Photo: Pavel Terekhov

The foundation already organizes free lessons, and Yuri receives a significant portion of donations from members of his own club. The coach is sure: giving children from low-income families the opportunity to fencing means giving them a chance for a good future. “I want every child who studies with us to become a good member of society through fencing, enter a good university, and graduate from it. This is more important than if he becomes a great athlete, one in a million can become this, and everyone else should become just good people.”

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