Boris Melnikov

Boris Melnikov was born in Leningrad and spent his childhood in the besieged city. He recalled that a bomb hit his house and destroyed it, but no one was hurt. His father died during World War II in Stalingrad. After the war, while reading the novels of Alexandre Dumas and watching many films about duels, he became interested in fencing, and recalled that in the yards they fenced with homemade wooden swords. He came to the fencing section very late at the age of 15 in 1953 and immediately chose sabre as his preferred weapon. In 1964 he was chosen for the Soviet national team.

Melnikov was one of the five fencers who won the first Olympic gold medal for the Soviet Union in men’s sabre team in 1964. At the World Championships he was twice gold medalist (1965, 1967) in team sabre and he was twice individual Soviet Champion.

From 1970 to 1972 Melnikov was a coach of the Egyptian national fencing team before returning to Russia where he worked as a fencing coach for 38 years. During this time, he also refereed internationally in World Cups, Junior World Championships, and the 1980 Moscow Olympics. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Russian fencing federation. In 1969, he starred in the feature film “Make a Fight” (“Сотвори бой”). He was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Russian fencing federation.