Quick Facts
Biography
Maher "Mauro" Hamza is a fencing coach who was born in Cairo, Egypt. He coached at Texas A&M,Rice University, for US national teams, and for the Egyptian Olympic team. In November 2023, Hamza was ruled permanently ineligible by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, which cited sexual misconduct involving minors as the reason for his ban.
Biography
1994-2014
In 1994, Hamza coached at Texas A&M for one year.
In August 1999, he established a fencing club in Houston, Texas. Hamza also served as Fencing Program Coordinator at Rice University from 1998 to 2014. He spent three years serving the Southwest fencing community as volunteer Chairman of the Gulf Coast Division.
Hamza was head coach of the 2001 United States Junior/Cadet national fencing team. Hamza was the Egyptian Olympic coach for the men’s and women’s foil teams at the Athens Olympics in 2004, and was the United States Fencing Association Men’s Foil National Coach 2009-10; then USA Foil Director for Men’s and Women’s National teams in 2010-11. In 2009, December 26 was declared “Mauro Hamza Day” by Houston mayor Bill White in recognition of his development of the sport of fencing in Houston.
2014-present
On December 3, 2014, Hamza's membership with USA Fencing was suspended until December 4, 2019, or until certain conditions were met, whichever would be later. His suspension was for unspecified sexual misconduct.
Five years later, in 2019 he was suspended again for “Allegations of Misconduct” by the U.S. Center for SafeSport.
In 2021, Hamza was coaching in Egypt. He coaches his son Mohamed Hamza, who fences for the Egyptian national fencing team and fenced for Princeton University.
In November 2023, Hamza was ruled permanently ineligible by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, which cited sexual misconduct involving minors as the reason for his ban.