Monica Aksamit
Quick Facts
Biography
Monica Aksamit (born February 18, 1990) is an American saber fencer. She represented her country at the 2016 Summer Olympics where she earned a bronze medal in the Women's Saber Team event.
Early life
She was born in New York City, New York, and lives in Matawan, New Jersey. Her mother and father divorced and she has a half sister, Olivia.She is of Polish descent, and spent some of her younger years living in Poland with her grandparents. She attended Matawan Regional High School, in New Jersey.
Aksamit attended Pennsylvania State University on a fencing scholarship, majoring in kinesiology, and graduated in 2012. She taught fencing at Brookdale Community College and teaches fencing at St. John Vianney.
Fencing career
She started fencing when she was nine years old. She began fencing at the Polish American Fencing School, under Janusz Mlynek. Her fencing club is the Manhattan Fencing Center, and her coach is Yury Gelman.
She won a team silver medal at the 2008 Junior World Championships. In 2009, she won a team gold medal and an individual bronze medal at the Pan American Championships.
During her college fencing career as a Penn State Nittany Lion, she won two NCAA Team Championships and was the runner-up NCAA Champion in 2012.
She helped Team USA win the team gold medal at the 2016 Pan American Championships.
As part of Team USA, Aksamit won a bronze medal representing the United States at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the women's team saber event.