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800-939-JUNK Livingston Native Represents Team USA as Sabre Fencer for Paris Olympics No. 20 Vol. 8
Elizabeth Tartakovsky realized her Olympic dream. She is currently competing in the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games (Credit: Serge Timacheff/USA Fencing)
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By Megan Roche lizabeth Tartarkovsky recalls watching the 2008 Olympic Games at the age of eight. She watched as her great uncle Yury Gelman coached the 2008 men’s sabre team and she was hooked on giving the sport a try. “I loved that the sport was a mix of athleticism and being strategic. I was a bit of a sneaky kid so I loved that fencing is a physical chess game. It really stuck for me,” Tartakovsky said.
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As she started competing on a more national level, Tartakovsky shared that success in the sport came early for her. “I reached success really early. My first national competition, I made it into the top eight and got a medal with the under 10 youth category. At ten years old, I won my first national event and that success was pretty steady as I went up the age categories. I don’t think I really realized that I had a talent for it, I just loved to compete. Going to competitions for me was like a vacation from school, I got to travel across the country, I met a ton of friends from different states and I thought that was so cool,” Tartakovsky said. After graduating from high school, Tartakovsky enrolled at Harvard University where she continued her fencing career. While in college, she also continued to compete at the senior Olympic level. “I really loved college fencing and I really think it
reinvigorated my love for the sport. My whole life I was fencing as an individual and now I had an entire team behind me, and my team, we really called ourselves a family team,” Tartakovsky said. While at Harvard, Tartakovsky won the Women’s Sabre NCAA Championship silver medal. As the Tokyo Summer Games came around, Tartakovsky had her eyes set on traveling to Japan. She had taken a year off after her freshman year at Harvard to train and fence on the senior level. As fate would have it, Tartakovsky missed making the Olympic roster by a few points. “It was really upsetting to me but I realized how much more I had to learn and that with enough time and effort, that I would be ready to be an Olympian one day,” Tartakovsky said. To make the Senior National Team, a fencer must place in the top four in the nation. In 2022, Tartakovsky realized that dream and had
August 2024
the privilege to wear USA Fencing across her chest. “I just had this motivation to continue to work and to prove myself at that level of competition. It was amazing, I think I made a big step on my progress on that level. A lot of the Olympic Team from Tokyo had retired, all of a sudden I became one of the most experienced people on that senior circuit and I think it really helped me step into that leadership role and realize that this is my time now,” Tartakovsky said. When it came time to qualify for a spot on the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic roster, Tartakovsky faced a year-long road of earning points at various competitions, where depending on her ranking at the end of the season, would make or break her spot on Team USA. “The hardest part about this year was really how mentally tough it was. I showed a lot of success, I finally made it into the top 16 in the world, I was
number one in the US going into the Olympic qualification season. The hardest season of your life is always the season after your best season, because you have so much to prove, that it wasn’t a fluke. I felt like an underdog for so long,” Tartakovsky said. When the notification came that she was officially a member of Team USA, Tartakovsky admitted that it took some time for it to really sink in. “It was really a sigh of relief, like ‘okay, I did what I was supposed to do’, but then seeing the support from family and friends
and people I’ve never met before, it’s quite amazing to see how many people are on my side. I’ve really had time to understand how special and unique this opportunity is and I’m so grateful for it,” Tartakovsky said. While she hopes to bring home a gold medal, Tartakovsky is just proud of all the work that got her to accomplish her dream. “I don’t want my experience to be defined by what medal I get or what place I get. I’m so grateful to have this opportunity, it’s the biggest privilege in the world.”
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