Fulvio Galimi (ARG), Olympian and President of the Buenos Aires Fencing Federation.
It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of Argentinian fencer and Olympian, Mr Fulvio Galimi, at the age of 89. Born on January 11, 1927 in Buenos Aires, he won his first tournament at the age of 13. At 15 he became national champion in epee. Then practising the three weapons, he participated in many renowned competitions in America and Europe and obtained innumerable awards.
Some of his achievements were:
Fulvio Galimi retired from fencing in 1967 at the Championship of the Republic of Argentina, where he was crowned foil and sabre champion. In 2012, the Argentine National Senate awarded him the “Diploma of Honor for his services to the Argentinian Sport”.
He was the President of the Fencing Federation of the City of Buenos Aires. To his family and friends, and to the Argentinian Fencing Federation, we express our most sincere condolences and our profound sympathy in these difficult times.
The USA Fencing family lost one of the trailblazers for the referee community when Gerrie Baumgart (Northglenn, Colo.) passed away at 73 years old. Baumgart, who took up fencing as an adult, would go on to break the glass ceiling for female referees. Not only was she the first U.S. woman to earn an FIE A rating, but she also became the first to not only officiate at the Olympic Games, but she refereed the gold medal epee team final at the Games in Atlanta in 1996.
Baumgart was an outstanding international referee, but she was also a woman determined to help groom future generations of fencing officials and is known among the referee cadre for being a mentor and role model to her fellow officials for the past four decades, both at tournaments as well as through her role on the Fencing Officials Commission.
Dr. Premysl Herych, the former president of the Czech Fencing Federation, has passed away at the age of 88, the European Fencing Confederation reported.
Dr. Herych, a renowned and highly respected figure in the fencing community, devoted the majority of his life to the sport. He succumbed in Prague to a long-term illness, shortly after his birthday.
As a fencer, Dr. Herych quickly mastered all three weapons and found success at youth level before representing Czechoslovakia at senior level. He was a national champion in the individual discipline and a five-team national team champion.
In 1953 he was a founding member of the Czech Fencing Club SLAVIA VS Praha, still one of the biggest and best clubs in the Czech Republic (now called USK Praha), and was its first president.
He then became president of the Czechoslovak/Czech Fencing Federation from 1968 to 2001, and served as vice- president of the Czech Olympic Committee from 1990 to 1998. In 1991 he represented his federation in Vienna as one of the founders of the Union Européenne d’Escrime, which later became the European Fencing Confederation.
At the International Fencing Federation (FIE) he served for 20 years as member of the Calendar and Promotion commission. The European Fencing Confederation and the FIE send their deepest sympathy and condolences to his family and to the Czech Fencing Federation.