Olympic Team Bios

GEREK MEINHARDT

Olympic Games: 2020, 2016 (Team Bronze), 2012, 2008 Current World Ranking: No. 2

Hometown: San Francisco, Calif. Current Residence: Lexington, Ky. Age: 30

Club: Massialas Foundation

College: First-year student at the University of Kentucky Medical School, MBA from the University of Notre Dame (2015), Bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame in information technology management (2013)

Career Highlights:

• 2016 Olympic team bronze medalist • Four-time Senior World team medalist (2019 - Gold, 2018, - Silver, 2017 - Silver, 2013 - Silver) • 2019 Senior World Team Champion • Two-time Ind. NCAA Champion (2010, 2014) • First U.S. men’s foil fencer to earn World No. 1 (2014)

One of the rising talents of the U.S. Men’s Team from a young age, Gerek became the first U.S. men’s fencer ever to qualify for the Cadet, Junior and Senior World Teams all in the same year (2007) and went on to qualify for the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team as the youngest athlete ever to compete on a U.S. Olympic Fencing Team at age 18. Gerek went on to win a medal at the Senior World Championships where he brought home a bronze in 2010. He returned to the podium in 2015, winning a second bronze and becoming the only U.S. man to reach the podium twice in the individual event. After winning bronze with Team USA at the 2016 Olympic Games, Gerek and his teammates won silver medals at the 2017 and 2018 Senior World Championships before earning Team USA’s first-ever Senior World title in the men’s team foil event in 2019. In September of 2019, Gerek married Lee Kiefer, his teammate at Notre Dame and on the 2012 and 2016 U.S. Olympic Teams in what was dubbed the “Royal Fencing Wedding.” During the COVID-19 shutdown of competition, Gerek began his medical school career at the University of Kentucky.