TARTAKOVSKY Elizabeth

Personal Information

Residence Livingston, NJ, USA

Occupation Athlete

Languages English, Russian, Spanish

Higher education Economics - Harvard University: Cambridge, MA, USA

License number 21052000000

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Sport Specific Information

When and where did you begin this sport? "I was introduced to fencing in 2008."

Why this sport? Previously a ballet dancer, her parents wanted to find a sport for her that combined the elegance and grace of ballet with competition and challenge. "What actually led us to fencing is Yury Gelman, my coach. He is a relative of mine, we're distantly related, he's almost like my dad's uncle. Both Yury and my parents are from the Soviet Union, they're all from Kyiv. In 2008 he was the Olympic coach for the [US] men's sabre team, and they had won a silver medal in the team event [at Beijing 2008]. I remember my parents pointing to the TV like, 'Hey, look, that's your uncle Yury. He just won an Olympic medal with his team'. Then I saw the videos and images of fencing. We tried it out, both my sister and I, and I fell in love right away. It was really engaging, fast. I think I was a very sneaky, intuitive kid, so I caught on to the strategy right away."

Club / Team Manhattan Fencing Center: United States

Name of coach Yury Gelman [club]

Handedness Right

General Interest

Hobbies Playing the piano. (first-to-15.simplecast.com, 06 May 2024)

Memorable sporting achievement Winning the individual sabre title at the 2022 National Collegiate Athletic Association [NCAA] Championships in Notre Dame, IN, United States of America. (first-to-15.simplecast.com, 06 May 2024)

Most influential person in career Her sister Gabrielle. (usafencing.org, 22 Mar 2018)

Hero / Idol US fencers Monica Aksamit and Dagmara Wozniak. (usafencing.org, 22 Mar 2018)

Sporting philosophy / motto "Find your why. Passion goes a long way, so find what motivates you. Enjoy the process. Take risks and embrace losses because they are the best opportunity to learn." (usafencing.org, 19 Feb 2024)

Awards and honours During her collegiate career at Harvard University, she was named United States Fencing Coaches Association [USFCA] National Collegiate Women's Sabre Athlete of the Year for 2021. (gocrimson.com, 01 Jan 2022)

Famous relatives Her sister Gabrielle Tartakovsky has competed in fencing for Harvard University in the United States of America. (usafencing.org, 22 Mar 2018)

Ambitions To win a gold medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. (foxnews.com, 10 May 2024)

Other information SPORTS PSYCHOLOGIST
In 2024 she spoke about her experience working with a sports psychologist. "I think it's really great that right now we're speaking so openly about mental health. I reached success at a young age. And then, once I started to get a little bit more mature, the field started to get more competitive, I realised that it's a grind. You have to lose more than you win, to learn, and have to learn to be resilient. I started working with a sports psychologist, maybe in high school, just to learn how to deal with all these different emotions, the pressure, expectations and also just learning how to perform well under stress. If you watch a fencing match, every point happens in two seconds. So, I had to learn how to emotionally and mentally prepare myself, how to recover in between losses, during rough patches in my fencing. If it were just about who trains the hardest and who is the most athletic, then we would see the same person win every time, but that's not the case. It's really about who can show up on that day and be the most mentally dominant as well." (foxnews.com, 11 May 2024)