Csaba Elthes

Maestro Csaba Elthes (March 10, 1912 - November 8, 1995) was a fencing master who emigrated to the U.S. Elthes trained many Olympic competitors in the 1960s through 1980s, including the only U.S. Olympic fencing medalist of the period, Peter Westbrook (bronze medal in 1984).

Born in Budapest, Hungary, Elthes earned a degree in law from University of Budapest in 1936. In 1956, political turmoil in Hungary caused him to leave his wife and daughter and flee to the west via the Brücke von Andau. He arrived in the United States and was detained for sixty days.

Determining that he would not be able to find work as a lawyer in the United States, he decided that fencing might be a good way to make a living. Investigating the competitions of the time, he realized that while American foil fencing was already at a fairly high level (he cited Albie Axelrod and Daniel Bukantz in particular), there were opportunities in sabre and epee, and he quickly found employment at the salle of maestro Giorgio Santelli in New York City.

Elthes and Santelli were largely (but not solely) responsible for making the New York City area the center of US sabre fencing for most of their careers; Elthes was a US Olympic coach from 1964 to 1984, and as late as 1992, the entire US Olympic sabre team was based at NYC salles and clubs. Elthes generally gave lessons both at the Fencers Club and at the New York Athletic Club.

For at least three years (1968-1971) he was the fencing coach at Pace University.

In his teaching, Elthes stressed balance and footwork, and treated fencing as an intellectual pursuit as well as an athletic one. When teaching, he often gave very few verbal instructions, indicating that the student should attempt to strike by exposing a potential target, or illustrating the weakness of a student's attack with a well-placed stop-cut.

The Hungarian school of instruction practiced by Elthes was famed for discipline, sarcasm and competitiveness, but always making it clear that there was respect between teacher and student (as exemplified by Elthes frequently calling students "Mr. Sir" (pronounced "Meester Sore" due to his heavy Hungarian accent), which tended to create fierce loyalty.

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