Sebastien Dos Santos Named USA Fencing Women’s Epee National Coach

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USA Fencing announced on January 7, 2026 that Sebastien Dos Santos has been named Women's Epee National Coach, returning to a role he previously held with the organization.

USA Fencing announced on January 7, 2026 that Sebastien Dos Santos has been named Women's Epee National Coach, returning to a role he previously held with the organization.

What was announced

Per USA Fencing:

We are not naming which athletes or which years those golds belong to, because the announcement's summary does not spell that out and we will not guess at a record that belongs to real people. The LA28 framing in the announcement — Women's Epee opening the fencing schedule — is stated there and is repeated here only as stated.

Why a national coach hire matters

National coach roles in fencing are not figurehead positions. The person in the seat shapes selection culture, decides who travels and when, runs training camps, sits behind the strip at World Cups and Championships, and sets the technical language that a squad shares.

Continuity in that role is valuable and rare. A twelve-year tenure like the 2009–2021 span noted in the announcement means a coach saw athletes arrive as juniors and leave as veterans, and it means institutional memory about what has and has not worked for American epee.

Bringing back someone with that history is a specific kind of bet: known methods, known relationships, and a shorter ramp-up than a first-time hire would need.

What a returning coach inherits

A squad is never the same one a coach left. Athletes who were cadets in 2021 are senior fencers now; others have retired, and the international field has moved. Re-entering a program means learning a new roster while carrying forward a system.

The hand-off itself matters too. A coach stepping down mid-cycle, as the announcement describes, leaves a gap in continuity for athletes who were mid-preparation. Filling that seat quickly with someone who knows the organization is, on its face, a stabilizing move.

Why saber fencers should care about an epee hire

Our club is saber-only, so an epee appointment is not our weapon. It is still our sport, and the three weapons share a system.

National coaching hires set the standard of what elite preparation looks like in the United States, and that standard filters down. Camp structures, conditioning expectations, video review habits and selection transparency travel between weapons because the coaches, referees and administrators are in the same rooms. A well-run epee program raises the bar that saber programs measure themselves against.

There is also a plain lesson in the résumé itself: 27 years of coaching, three countries, five Games. Careers in this sport are long. The fencers who go furthest are usually the ones who found coaching they trusted and stayed with it.

What it changes for a club fencer

Nothing about your training this week. Weapon-specific national programs sit at the far end of a pathway that starts with weekly group lessons, local tournaments and a first rating.

If your fencer is chasing that pathway, the practical takeaway is simply that the top of the sport is staffed by career coaches with decades of continuity, and progress at every level below works the same way — consistent training with a coach who knows you.

Train saber in Bethesda

Saber Nation is a saber-only club at 4701 Sangamore Road, Suite LL2, Bethesda, MD 20816. Coaching is led by Fikrat Valiyev, Owner and Head Coach. Group lessons run Monday and Wednesday, 4:45 to 6:15 p.m., and Saturday, 8 to 10 a.m., at the Bethesda salle. Reach us at (301) 200-1853 or info@sabernation.com.

More reading

Official source

Official source: Sebastien Dos Santos Named USA Fencing Women's Epee National Coach — USA Fencing, January 7, 2026.

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