Richard Cohen (fencer)
Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||
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Nationality | British | |||||||||||||||||
Born | Birmingham, England | 9 May 1947|||||||||||||||||
Website | richardcohenauthor | |||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||
Country | England (1970-1986); Northern Ireland (1986-present) | |||||||||||||||||
Sport | Fencing (sabre) | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Richard A Cohen (born 9 May 1947) is a retired British fencer who competed at three Olympic Games[1] and the author of four books, Making History, The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past, Chasing the Sun, the story of man's relationship to that star, How to Write Like Tolstoy, A Journey into the Minds of Our Greatest Writers, and By the Sword, a history of sword fighting. He is the founder of the book publisher Richard Cohen Books.
Fencing career
Cohen was born in Birmingham, England, to a Jewish father and an Irish Catholic mother. He learned to fence while at Downside School, near Bath.[2] He was a five times British fencing champion, winning the sabre title at the British Fencing Championships in 1974, 1980, 1982, 1986 and 1987.[3] He was selected for the British team in four Olympics from 1972 to 1984, although he did not compete at the Moscow Olympics because of a sporting boycott.[4] He was Commonwealth sabre champion in 1982 and won the prestigious Paris Open in 1981.[5]
He represented England and won a gold medal in the team sabre and a bronze medal in the individual sabre, at the 1970 British Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Scotland,[6][7][8]
Cohen was World Veterans' Sabre Champion in 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2009 and has been European sabre champion nine times, making him the most successful single-weapon fencer of veteran fencing.[citation needed] He won the national veteran saber championships a record fourteen times.
Publishing career
While competing as a fencer, he worked for book publishers, editing much of the early work of
Personal life
Cohen has two sons and a daughter and lives in New York City with his wife Kathy Robbins, a literary agent. His son Guy Cohen won a bronze medal for Great Britain at the 2013 Maccabiah Games in men's épée, and his daughter Mary fenced in épée, Richard Cohen in both foil and saber.[13] His daughter, Mary (born 1986), was British épée champion in 2006, 2011 and 2018, and was a member of the British team at World and European championships from 2002 till 2019. In 2010 father (for Northern Ireland) and daughter (for England) competed in the same Commonwealth championships, the first father and daughter to do so, Cohen at age 63 coming 12th in the saber and winning the veterans saber (over 40), a first gold medal for Northern Ireland in Commonwealth fencing. In June 2017 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.[14]
References
- ^ "Richard Cohen Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
- ^ "Title Holders". World Veterans Fencing Championships. Archived from the original on 19 May 2006.
- ^ "British Champions" (PDF). British Fencing. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
- ^ Book review, The Independent, 11 December 2002.
- ^ The Sword magazine
- ^ "1970 Athletes". Team England.
- ^ "Edinburgh, 1970 Team". Team England.
- ^ "Athletes and results". Commonwealth Games Federation.
- ^ Publishing MA: Who teaches this course, Kingston University.. Retrieved 25 November 2010.
- ISBN 978-0-375-50417-4.
- ^ "Chasing the Sun". Book of the Week. BBC.
- ^ "Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped The Past by Richard Cohen". Book of the Week. BBC.
- ^ "Fencer Cohen wins GB's first Maccabiah medal - The Jewish Chronicle". Archived from the original on 9 February 2018.
- The Royal Society of Literature. Retrieved 7 March 2023.