Yury Gelman (born October 13, 1955) is a Ukrainian-born American five-time Olympic fencing coach for the United States (Sydney, Athens, Beijing, London, and Rio 2016), National Men's Sabre Coach, and Head Fencing Coach for 2001 NCAA champion St. John's University. Gelman is a founder of the Manhattan Fencing Center[1] in New York City and has prepared 22 students for the United States National Teams.
Gelman, who is Jewish, was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, where he taught fencing to elite athletes.[2] His maternal grandmother was Esther Krakovitch.[2] Gelman graduated in 1977 from Piddubny Olympic College, with a degree in physical education and coaching of fencing, and in 1981 earned a master's degree in physical education.[3]
Gelman's coaching experience began at the Piddubny Olympic College, where he was coach from 1977-91.[3] Gelman also served as coach of the Ukrainian Fencing Team from 1987-91.[3]
He immigrated to the United States in 1991, moving to New York.[2] He could not find work in the US in fencing straight away, so he spent a year and a half selling doughnuts at a flea market on a New Jersey highway.[2]
Gelman then served as the fencing coach at St. John’s University in New York City for since 1995.[2] [3] In 2007 he opened the Manhattan Fencing Center.[2]
In the 2001 Junior World Championships, Gelman's students Ivan Lee and Tim Hagamen were the first to bring a gold medal to the United States. The US National Team, under Gelman's leadership, won the 2001 Gdansk Junior World Championships, the 2004 team Grand Prize, 4th Place at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, 5th place at the 2005 Leipzicg Senior World Championship, and the silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics[4] (Keeth Smart, Tim Morehouse, James Williams, and Jason Rogers). In the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, Daryl Homer won a historic silver medal in men's sabre fencing.[5] He became the first U.S. men's silver medalist since William Grebe in 1904. The U.S. Women's Sabre Team won a bronze medal (with Dagmara Wozniak and Monica Aksamit winning bronze medals in the Women's Sabre Team Competition, coached by Gelman).
Gelman was inducted into US Fencing Hall of Fame[6] on July 10 at the 2010 Summer National Championships in Atlanta.