NOTRE DAME, Ind. — On Saturday, Feb. 22, Gerek Meinhardt became the second Notre Dame fencing alumni to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. It will be Meinhardt’s fourth appearance in the Olympic Games.
Meinhardt was a two-time NCAA Foil Champion for the Irish, once as a sophomore in 2010 and again as a graduate student in 2014. He also posted a career 103-9 record at the collegiate level and became the second four-time First Team All-American (2009, 2010, 2013, 2014) on the men’s side in program history. Meinhardt has thrived in international competition as well, becoming the youngest athlete ever to compete on a U.S. Olympic Fencing Team in 2008 at the age of 18 and then going on to become the first U.S. man to win a Senior World Championship medal in 2010 (bronze) and earn a bronze medal in Men’s Team Foil at the 2016 Olympic games in Rio. He is currently ranked No. 1 in the U.S. and No. 3 in the world in men’s foil fencing.
Meinhardt joins Lee Keifer (‘17), who is married to Meinhardt, as the two Irish fencers to qualify for the 2020 Olympics so far. Keifer was a four-time NCAA champion (2013-15, 2017) at Notre Dame and in 2017 became the first U.S. woman to earn a No. 1 world ranking in foil fencing. This will be her third Olympic appearance.
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