Assistant coach and foil specialist Gia Kvaratskhelia

Kvaratskhelia Named U.S. Fencing's National Coach Of The Year

Feb. 10, 2011

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Gia Kvaratskhelia, an assistant fencing coach and foil specialist at the University of Notre Dame, has been named the 2010 U.S. Fencing National Coach of the Year, it was announced by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) earlier this week.

For the past three year’s Kvaratskhelia has served as one of the designated coaches of U.S. men’s and women’s foil team, travelling to Marseille with the cadet boys and girls championships, Budapest for the junior women’s foil championships and London for the junior men’s foil championships.

“It’s an honor of course,” stated Kvaratskhelia. “It was completely unexpected. I think it is a result of the program that we have here and it’s a reward for the strong foil team that we have brought here, both girls and boys. I think it’s a reward for creating something like that, which is as close as you can get to the Olympic Training Center as far as a college program goes.”

Kvaratskhelia received the honor on the heels of a very productive foil season for Irish fencers on the North American Cup circuit as well as the World Championships.

Over the three-event North American Cup cycle, at least one Irish foilist placed in the top eight, with as many as three finishing in the final eight. At the NAC “A” event in Cincinnati, Gerek Meinhardt captured the title and Steve Kubik finished in eighth, while future Irish foilist Race Imboden finished runner-up to Meinhardt. Ariel DeSmet earned a pair of bronze medal finishes at the NAC “B” and “C” events in Atlanta and Dallas, respectively, while Enzo Castellani joined DeSmet near the top in Dallas, finishing eighth.

The biggest accomplishment of the season, however, was helping Meinhardt capture bronze at the 2010 World Championships in Paris, France. The finish marked the highest finish ever by an American foilist at the Championships.

“I give a lot of credit to the individual coaches who bring the fencers to the international level of competition,” continued Kvaratskhelia. “Our duty is to maintain their level and not let it fall down at any point. So we hope to maintain this and hopefully give them something more to excel.”

Along with his extensive international coaching success, Kvaratskhelia also has mentored 14 Irish fencers to NCAA All-American status over his five-year tenure on the Irish coaching staff and helped Meinhardt claim the 2010 NCAA individual foil title after finishing runner-up in ’09.

“This is a great honor, but the best reward I could wish for would be at the end of March at the NCAAs if we can capture the NCAA Team Championship trophy.”

–ND–