Friend & Foil

After a career fencing against the best, Oleg Matseichuk is guiding the next generation of fencers at the Club.

A cacophony of clashing steel fills the Club Gymnasium. Member Claire Finck peers at her opponent through the steel mesh of her fencing helmet. Despite being much smaller, the 12-year-old feels confident.

With a lunge, she darts into her opponent’s space and drives the tip of her foil into the jacket of the other fencer to score a point.

Claire learned the technique from Oleg Matseichuk, a former Ukrainian national fencer who coached Japan to Olympic gold and who now nurtures the Olympians of tomorrow at the Club.

“He’s really strong emotionally and physically, and a really good teacher,” says Claire, who credits Matseichuk for her improved hand skills that lead to more strikes in close quarters.

Matseichuk might have fenced at the highest level, but the sport wasn’t his first choice. He tried soccer and boxing before being introduced to fencing when a teacher visited his high school in Kyiv. He stuck with it, he admits, because “soccer was very tiring with all the running and boxing was very painful.”

His dedication paid off. Within three years, he enrolled at a sports school. After success in local competitions, he took part in his first international tournament at age 20 and went on to earn a spot on the Ukrainian national fencing team.

Matseichuk’s career highlights include a top-eight finish at the 1998 European Fencing Championships in Bulgaria and a team gold medal at the 1997 Summer Universiade in Sicily.

After retiring from competitive fencing at age 30, he was recruited by the Japan Fencing Federation in 2003. And it was as a coach that he truly excelled.

With Japan’s national team, Matseichuk witnessed Yuki Ota take silver in the men’s individual foil competition at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It was the country’s first medal in fencing.

“Nobody in the world was happier than me on that day,” says the 51-year-old with a wide smile. “It’s a feeling that you achieved something unreal. With time, this feeling gives much more motivation to you. It gives power.”

After Japan won its first-ever gold at the pandemic-delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Matseichuk left the national team, believing the fencers needed “a new voice and outlook” to help them continue to develop.

Former Japan coach Koji Emura, who oversees the Club’s fencing program, approached Matseichuk with a proposal. The two joined forces and now teach the finer points of fencing to Olympians and Club Members alike.

Last year, Emura, who fenced for Japan at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, launched a fundraising campaign to support Matseichuk and Japan national team coach Oleksandr Gorbachuk, whose families remain in war-torn Ukraine.

“I see Oleg as one of the coaches who raised Japanese fencers to win medals at international tournaments,” says Emura. “He can pass that legacy down to younger fencers.”