Gerek Meinhardt

Gerek Meinhardt
At the 2013 World Fencing Championships
Personal information
Born	Gerek Lin Meinhardt (1990-07-27) July 27, 1990 San Francisco, California, United States
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	77 kg (170 lb)
Sport
Country	United States
Sport	Fencing
Weapon	Foil
Hand	Right-handed
National coach	Greg Massialas
Club	Notre Dame / Massialas Foundation
FIE ranking	current ranking
Medal record Men's foil Representing the United States Olympic Games 2016 Rio de Janeiro Team 2020 Tokyo Team World Championships 2019 Budapest Team 2013 Budapest Team 2017 Leipzig Team 2018 Wuxi Team 2022 Cairo Team 2010 Paris Individual 2015 Moscow Individual Pan American Games 2011 Guadalajara Team 2015 Toronto Team 2019 Lima Individual 2019 Lima Team 2023 Santiago Team 2015 Toronto Individual Pan American Championships 2023 Lima Individual 2023 Lima Team

Gerek Lin Meinhardt (born July 27, 1990) is an American right-handed foil fencer. Meinhardt is a two-time individual NCAA champion, 12-time team Pan American champion, three-time individual Pan American champion and 2019 team world champion. A four-time Olympian, Meinhardt is a two-time team Olympic bronze medalist. Meinhardt competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the 2012 London Olympic Games, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Biography

Meinhardt is one of two children born to Kurt and Jane Meinhardt. He attended Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco for two years and completed high school in a home schooling program. He attended the University of Notre Dame on a full fencing scholarship. He majored in business and finance, and was a member of the school's fencing team from 2009 to 2014. Gerek was employed by Deloitte Advisory before enrolling at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in 2020. He married fellow American fencer Lee Kiefer in September 2019.

Introduced to the sport at age 9 through a program run by Olympic fencer Greg Massialas, Meinhardt began participating in national fencing competitions a year later. At age 16 he became the youngest men's national foil champion when he won the tournament at the 2007 U.S. Fencing National Championships.

By winning at the 2014 NCAA Fencing National Championships, he joined female fencer Lee Kiefer and swimmer Emma Reaney as part of the 2nd Notre Dame Fighting Irish trio to be named individual national champion in a single year and the 4th to be either individual national champion or national athlete of the year in a single year.

Ranked 16th in the world at the time, he participated in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing as a member of the United States fencing team. He was the youngest fencer in Beijing and the youngest U.S. Olympic fencer of all time. At the 2010 World Fencing Championships in Paris, he won a bronze medal in the men's foil event, tying with Yuki Ota of Japan. After his gold medal win at the 2012 U.S National Championships, he was selected as an alternate fencer for the 2012 London Olympics U.S men's foil team. For the 2016 Rio Olympics he was selected as a member of the United States fencing team and won the bronze medal in the team foil competition. He again qualified for the United States in fencing at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo where he won his second consecutive bronze medal in team foil.

Meinhardt is a member of the FIE Hall of Fame.

Medal record

Olympic Games

Year	Location	Event	Position
2016	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Team Men's Foil	3rd
2021	Tokyo, Japan	Team Men's Foil	3rd

World Championship

Year	Location	Event	Position
2010	Paris, France	Individual Men's Foil	3rd
2013	Budapest, Hungary	Team Men's Foil	2nd
2015	Moscow, Russia	Individual Men's Foil	3rd
2017	Leipzig, Germany	Team Men's Foil	2nd
2018	Wuxi, China	Team Men's Foil	2nd
2019	Budapest, Hungary	Team Men's Foil	1st
2022	Cairo, Egypt	Team Men's Foil	2nd

Pan American Championship

Year	Location	Event	Position
2007	Montreal, Canada	Individual Men's Foil	1st
2007	Montreal, Canada	Team Men's Foil	2nd
2008	Querétaro City, Mexico	Individual Men's Foil	2nd
2008	Querétaro City, Mexico	Team Men's Foil	1st
2009	San Salvador, El Salvador	Individual Men's Foil	2nd
2009	San Salvador, El Salvador	Team Men's Foil	1st
2010	San José, Costa Rica	Team Men's Foil	1st
2011	Reno, Nevada	Individual Men's Foil	3rd
2011	Reno, Nevada	Team Men's Foil	1st
2012	Cancún, Mexico	Individual Men's Foil	3rd
2012	Cancún, Mexico	Team Men's Foil	1st
2013	Cartagena, Colombia	Individual Men's Foil	1st
2013	Cartagena, Colombia	Team Men's Foil	1st
2014	San José, Costa Rica	Individual Men's Foil	1st
2014	San José, Costa Rica	Team Men's Foil	1st
2015	Santiago, Chile	Individual Men's Foil	3rd
2016	Panama City, Panama	Team Men's Foil	1st
2017	Montreal, Canada	Individual Men's Foil	3rd
2017	Montreal, Canada	Team Men's Foil	1st
2018	Havana, Cuba	Individual Men's Foil	3rd
2018	Havana, Cuba	Team Men's Foil	1st
2019	Toronto, Canada	Individual Men's Foil	3rd
2019	Toronto, Canada	Team Men's Foil	1st
2022	Asunción, Paraguay	Individual Men's Foil	3rd
2022	Asunción, Paraguay	Team Men's Foil	1st

Grand Prix

Date	Location	Event	Position
2013-03-16	Venice, Italy	Individual Men's Foil	2nd
2013-05-04	Tokyo, Japan	Individual Men's Foil	2nd
2014-05-03	Tokyo, Japan	Individual Men's Foil	1st
2019-02-08	Turin, Italy	Individual Men's Foil	3rd
2020-02-07	Turin, Italy	Individual Men's Foil	1st
2021-03-26	Doha, Qatar	Individual Men's Foil	1st
2023-02-12	Turin, Italy	Individual Men's Foil	1st

World Cup

Date	Location	Event	Position
2008-06-13	Guarico, Venezuela	Individual Men's Foil	3rd
2013-02-22	A Coruña, Spain	Individual Men's Foil	3rd
2014-01-17	Paris, France	Individual Men's Foil	3rd
2015-11-06	Tokyo, Japan	Individual Men's Foil	3rd
2016-01-15	Paris, France	Individual Men's Foil	3rd
2017-11-10	Tokyo, Japan	Individual Men's Foil	3rd
2019-01-11	Paris, France	Individual Men's Foil	2nd
2019-11-08	Bonn, Germany	Individual Men's Foil	2nd

See also

• List of USFA Division I National Champions

External links

• Gerek Meinhardt at the International Fencing Federation
• Gerek Meinhardt at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
• Statistics on Nahouw.net