OUR COACHES
VICTOR GANTSEVICH
Founder and Head Coach
Canadian National Team Coach
Former Coach of Team Israel and Ukraine
IGOR GANTSEVICH
2004 - 2012 Canadian National Team
ERIC BOISSE
1996 - 2011 Team France
2004 Olympic Champion
CHARLES ST-HILAIRE
1992 2007 Canadian National Team
SIMON STAVISSKY
Russian Team Squad
LYNN SEGUIN
Canadian Fencing Federation Epee Weapon Leader
2020 Tokyo Paralympics Wheelchair Fencing Team Manager
HRISTO ETROPOLSKI
Bulgarian Olympic Team
ERIK MEDINA DIAZ
2001 - 2010 Cuban National Team
ILIYA DEGTYAREV
2014 - 2016 Russian National Team
VITALIY BUDOVSKYI
Ukrainian National Team
LUIS PATTERSON
2013 - 2020 Cuban National Team
EVRIM SELCUK
Former Turkish National Men's Epee Cadet Team
ALINA ZELENTSOVA
2016 - 2019 Ukrainian National Team
OUR TRAINERS
SERGEY NAZAROV
Trainer
CORINE LATREILLE
Trainer
Dr. SAUL L. MILLER
Sport Psychologist
MAITRE VICTOR GANTSEVICH
Since graduating from the Institute of Physical Education and Sports of the City of Kiev, Ukraine in 1979, he has led Fencers to championships in the Ukraine, Israel and Canada.
He currently dedicates the majority of his time and energy to elite High Performance Dynamo athletes. This dovetails nicely with his roles as the B.C. Provincial and Senior Canadian National Team Head Coach. Over the past decade, Maitre Gantsevich has quickly become a beacon for elite level coaching, having qualified nearly thirty (30) Dynamo athletes to Canada’s National Teams.
IGOR GANTSEVICH
In his nearly decade long career as an elite athlete and Canadian National Team member from 2004 to 2012, Igor enjoyed success at the highest levels including a Bronze Medal at the 2011 PanAM Games and championships at Provincial, National, North American and PanAmerican Championships. The culmination of his dedication and hard work came in 2008 when he played a critical role in securing Canada a Medal at a World Cup event (International Grand Prix), the first of its kind in Canadian history.
Igor is currently the president of Dynamo Fencing Club and the Head Coach of the West Vancouver Premier Fencing Academy. Over the past ten (10) years, Igor has introduced over 50,000 Youth to the sport of fencing across the lower mainland of British Columbia.
ERIC BOISSE
TOP ACHIEVEMENTS
2004 Olympic Gold Medalist in Athens;
2000, 2005, 2006, 2007 - 4 times World Champion
#1 World Ranking in Senior Men’s Epee in 2007
Winner of 4 FIE Grand Prix in individual and 12 by team
COACHING
"I believe Fencing is a Chess sport and a Champion must be able to overcome any situation with the mind first that is why my coaching is half mental half physical. "if you use your brain, everybody can beat anybody".
CHARLES ST-HILAIRE
TOP ACHIEVEMENTS
3 Selections as athlete to Fisu games
Top 8 result in Palma (ESP) 1999
13 times National Champion
9 Selections for Worlds
Many top 16 results in senior world cups
11 NAC medals (3 Gold)
4 times Québec Federation athlete of the year
COACHING
Charles has significant results as a coach whose students won many medals: 42 medals at Nationals (16 Gold); 6 individual Pan-Am (1 Gold); 4 Senior World Cup medals; 1 Bronze medal at Cadet World championship.
HRISTO ETROPOLSKI
TOP ACHIEVEMENTS
In 2013 he was honored by the FIE (International Fencing Federation) and included in the international fencing Hall of Fame.
2014 Hristo's proteges ranked No. 3 in the U.S. women’s sabre rankings; No. 7 in the world women's saber ranking and No. 5th in the world junior women saber ranking.
2014 one of his students was included in U.S. Olympic Team.
COACHING
I believe a successful athlete is equally concerned with their physical skills as with their mental capacity. An intense workout will develop a capable body, able to execute every intended move. Even more important is the ability to remain calm under pressure, keen observation skills that will show your opponent's weakness and a smart game plan. No one wins a bout with strength and endurance alone.
VITALIY BUDOVSKYI
TOP ACHIEVEMENTS
3 times Junior World Champion
( 1997 and 2 times 1998 ), 1999 and 2006
European silver medalist, 2001 European bronze medalist in Modern Pentathlon
1998 Champion of Youth Ukrainian Games
1999 and 2003 Champion of Ukrainian Games in Modern Pentathlon
COACHING
Bronze medal in World Championship 2011
Silver in cadet World championship 2011
"Learn from mistakes for future victories."
SIMON STAVISSKY
TOP ACHIEVEMENTS
Finalists of the European cups in Italy (Rome) and Czech Republic ( Brno)
Numerous gold medalist of the CFL
( China Fencing League)
Silver medal in Russian Championship in team
Winner of all-Russian junior Championship
COACHING
Adam Wong : Second place, Senior event 2020 Canada Cup; Third place, Cadet team European Circuit, Bratislava; 18th place, Individual European Circuit, Bratislava 2020
Lucas Sing: First place, Commonwealth Championship
Numerous medals thru out the years from 2018 at SYC, NAC and National tournaments from Y10 to Cadet
In my opinion ,fencing is one of the smartest sports in the world. My personal coaching method is based on a Russian fencing school. My motto: train hard,
fight easy.
ERIK MEDINA DIAZ
TOP ACHIEVEMENTS
Top 32 World Cup - Havana 2004
Top32 and 6 place team FISU GAMES
2001 to 2010 Cuban National Team Men’s Epee
2018 Canadian National Champion Team
2017 Canadian Senior Men’s Epee National Bronze Medalist
2016 to 2019 – Epee Coach at Estoc Fencing Club (Quebec City, Canada)
2010 to 2016 – Epee Coach in Provincial Cuban Team
2005 FISU Games Athlete
COACHING
Erik plans to continue hard as a coach with his students to guarantee generational replacement.
"My dream is to get an athlete to the Olympic games."
LUIS PATTERSON
TOP ACHIEVEMENTS
2019 Gold Medal (Team) - Pan American
Championship, Toronto, Canada
2019 Gold Medal (Team) - Pan American Games,
Lima Peru
2012-2019 Cuba National Team Member
2016 Bronze Medal Junior - Pan American
Championship, Mexico
2016 Silver Medal (Team) - Central American
Championship, Panama
2016 Silver Medal - Central American
Championship, Panama
2015 Gold Medal - Junior World Cup, El Salvador
COACHING
2010-2013 Assistant Coach ESFAAR
ILIYA DEGTYAREV
TOP ACHIEVEMENTS
Ilya has built an impressive career as a fencer over the last decade.
Being on Russian National Team (2014-2016), Top 16 (individual), 3rd place (team) at European Championship Jerusalem (Israel, 2014) as well as obtaining 1st place (individual), 1st place (team) at European Championship U-23 Tbilisi (Georgia, 2014) allowed him to become a great mentor and a successful coach.
LYNN SEGIUN
TOP ACHIEVEMENTS
Coach Lynn was appointed by Canadian Fencing Federation as Epee Weapon Leader. She has over
30 years of experience and is renowned in Canada
and worldwide for her achievements:
2020 Tokyo Paralympics – Wheelchair Fencing, Team Manager
2005 Maître D’Armes – Fencing, in all three weapons
1983 Women’s World Champion – Modern Pentathlon
1983 – Canadian Female Athlete of the Year (Velma Springstead Trophy)
EVRIM SELCUK
TOP ACHIEVEMENTS
Former Turkish National Mens Epee Cadet Team.
Evrim has joined our club as a former member to now share his passion as a coach.
Evrim loves fencing and will continue to show his love for our sport to our youth for many generations to come.
ALINA ZELENTSOVA
TOP ACHIEVEMENTS
Top 16 Europe Championship Serbia - 2016
Ukrainian Championship - 2016 (team)
Bronze medal Ukrainian Championship - 2016
Bronze medal Ukrainian Championship - 2017
Silver medal Ukrainian Championship - 2018
5 place Ukrainian Championship - 2019
COACHING
Manager - Kharkiv Ukraine Fencing Federation
Coach Epee & Foil - trained children 6-9 and 10-15 y.o. who achieved high results in Ukrainian tournaments.
Ukrainian Referee (Epee) - cadets world tournaments Austria 2019, Bratislava 2019, Budapest 2021, Serbia 2021.
A chief referee at the international tournament in memory of Leonid Averbakh in Kharkiv, as well as many other tournaments in Ukraine.