Eli Dershwitz

Eli Dershwitz is an American left-handed saber fencer and coach from Sherborn, Massachusetts, best known as the first U.S. male to win a senior world championship in men's saber, capturing the individual gold medal in 2023. A three-time Olympian, he competed in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games (finishing 19th individually), the 2020 Tokyo Games (9th individually and 8th in the team event), and the 2024 Paris Games (17th individually and 7th in the team event). Dershwitz has amassed numerous accolades, including five individual Pan American championships, a silver medal in the 2018 World Championships, a 2023 team bronze at the Worlds, two NCAA individual titles, gold at the 2025 USA Fencing Summer Nationals, and the overall World Cup saber title in the 2017–18 season as the first American man to achieve that ranking.

Born in 1995, Dershwitz began fencing at age nine at Zeta Fencing in Natick, Massachusetts, inspired by his older brother Phil, and trained there for 17 years before the club relocated to Ashland in 2022. He attended Dover-Sherborn High School and went on to Harvard University, where he majored in history and graduated in 2019, during which time he became a four-time first-team All-American, won four Ivy League individual titles, and posted a career record of 58–2 in Ivy League championships and 70–4 in NCAA tournaments. Earlier in his career, Dershwitz earned the 2015 World Junior Saber Championship gold in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, marking him as a standout in the under-20 category.

Dershwitz comes from a Jewish family; his parents are Renee Goetzler, a physician specializing in internal medicine, and Mark Dershwitz, an anesthesiologist and professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He has an older brother, Phil, who also fenced competitively, and a twin sister, Sally. The family provided strong support for Dershwitz's athletic interests from a young age, reflecting a household value on personal achievement and perseverance.