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Nazlymov Fencing was established in January of 2018 by a husband and wife team – Vitali Nazlymov and Zheng Wang. Since 2016, Vitali has been coaching Intro to Fencing after-school program at Sidwell Friends. In 2017, he introduced the program to Norwood School and agreed to offer similar classes at Washington International School and Georgetown Day School. It became clear that it was time to turn the project into a stand-alone business. In April 2018, Vladimir Nazlymov, Head Coach of Ohio State Varsity Fencing upon his team’s disappointing (to him) 3rd place finish at the 2018 NCAA Finals, decided to retire and join his children and grandchildren. Vladimir, 3-time Olympic Champion and former Captain of both USSR and USA National teams, founded Nazlymov Fencing Foundation in May of 2018. In one year, the program introduced 200 children to this new “it” Olympic sport via after-school classes and summer camps, like the one below
“Nazlymov” is a well-recognized surname in the sport of fencing. In 1990, Vitali Nazlymov was on the USSR Olympic Committee payroll as a candidate to the 1992 Olympic team. He was encouraged by several NCAA coaches to apply for colleges in the US. Later that year, Vitali transferred from Moscow Linguistics University to the Pennsylvania State University on a full athletic scholarship. He became Individual NCAA Champion and 3-time First Team All-American.
Coincidentally, in 1991, Vitali’s father, Vladimir Nazlymov, 10-time World Champion, retired from being Head Coach of the USSR Military Fencing team. In an effort to re-unite the family, he accepted the Fencing Coach position with Central High School – magnet school in the Kansas City, MO.
Upon graduation from Penn State, Vitali moved to Kansas City to develop a city-wide Olympic Fencing program. By 1996, the entire US Junior (Y19) National team consisted of 3 Central High School students (Terrence Lasker, Jeremy Summers and Sean Bates) representing USA at World Championships in Paris. Another one of their students made Atlanta Olympic Team. Finally, the Nazlymovs brought the Sabre World Cup (the only International event hosted in the US) which was held in New York City for the previous two decades to Kansas City. In 1998, Vitali moved to the Washington, DC area to pursue a career in Finance. A year later, Vladimir became Head Coach of Ohio State University, which he turned into a national powerhouse for the last 19 years.
With the benefit of experience, we are looking forward to version 2.0 – building a world-class city-wide Olympic Fencing program in our Nation’s Capital. Please join us on our journey!