Gerek Meinhardt | |
---|---|
Personal information | |
Country represented | United States |
Born |
San Francisco, California, United States |
July 27, 1990
Weapon(s) | foil |
Hand | Right-handed |
Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) |
Weight | 77 kg (170 lb; 12.1 st) |
National coach(es) | Greg Massialas |
Club | Notre Dame / Massialas Foundation |
FIE Ranking | current ranking |
Gerek Lin Meinhardt (born July 27, 1990) is an American foil fencer.
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 2009-2014. Gerek is currently employed by Deloitte Advisory.
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.
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.