Olympic Games Rio 2016
Seppe Van Holsbeke
Under Meester Paul's guidance, Seppe qualified for the Rio Olympics. The high point of a season in which every decision had been worked out in detail.
Palmares
Who he has coached.
Forty years in the sport. Fourteen years on the national team. Four Olympic events on his sheet, and a generation of fencers in selections from Flanders to America.
European Champion U23, Antalya 2024
Jolien Corteyn
In the U23 European Championship final in Antalya, Jolien beat Italy's Benedetta Fusetti 15-13. The following year she added gold at the Flemish Open on home soil in Ghent. Earlier active at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, with multiple podium finishes on the World Cup circuit at U17 and U20. Daughter and athlete, in that order.
Bronze, Junior World Championships sabre, Tashkent 2015
Jules-Emile De Visscher
Under Meester Paul's guidance, Jules-Emile took bronze at the Junior World Championships sabre in Tashkent. Multiple Belgian junior champion in the years before that.
Pan-American champion · U20 World Champion
Silas Choi
During Meester Paul's years in the United States, Silas grew into a Pan-American champion and U20 world champion in sabre. One of the standouts of his American intake, with podium finishes at the highest international levels.
“Champions don't become champions when they win the event, but in the hours, weeks, months and years they spend preparing for it.”
Wider body of work
Fencers from Flanders to America.
In Belgium his fencers have formed the backbone of the national sabre selections for decades. More than thirty fencers across senior and junior squads, with dominance at Belgian championships spanning multiple generations now.
Three years full-time in the United States. Just over two years at Globus Fencing Academy in Dallas, then a year at Capital Fencing Academy in Washington D.C. Under his guidance Silas Choi grew into a Pan-American champion and U20 world champion. Alongside him Chris Guffey, Taylor Chon, Audrey Lin, Tony Escueta, Elijah Kim and Elisabeth Kondev: a string of American fencers who took medals at national and international competitions, up to zonal and world championships. He travelled as a coach with Team USA to World Cups and World Championships. At the Veteran World Championships there were several medals, with gold, individual and team, for Chris Matt and Pietro Ferrara and bronze for Garik Gutmann.
Fourteen top-eight finishes at World or European Championships across age groups. Coach in Rio, Buenos Aires, Antalya, Tallinn, Basel, Kraków and Baku. Today, focus back on individual athletes.
From the American years
Dallas and Washington, up close.
Images from his years at Globus Fencing Academy and Capital Fencing Academy: lessons by the strip, medals at the national tournaments, and the Veteran World Championships with Team USA.
