Alexander Choupenitch
Alexander Choupenitch is a Czech right-handed foil fencer, two-time Olympian, and 2021 individual Olympic bronze medalist.
Early life
Choupenitch is the son of Belarusian-born opera singers who both worked at National Theatre Brno. The unusual form of his name – Choupenitch instead of Šupenič – is due to the fact that papers issued to his parents for travelling through Europe used a French spelling.His first sport, basketball, left him frustrated as he seldom got to touch the ball, so his mother took him to the fencing section of Sokol Brno when he was eight. He later learnt that his step-grandmother, Tatyana Petrenko-Samusenko, was a three-time Olympic foil champion for the USSR. Foil was the only option offered at the club, but he later explained that foil is indeed his favourite weapon, being the more realistic and striking the best balance between sabre's speed and épée's tactics. His first coach was Dmitri Romankov, who also trained Belarusian fencer Siarhei Byk.
Choupenitch's other favourite sports are association football and ice hockey. He also plays the piano. Choupenitch interrupted his studies at the Masaryk University in Brno to focus on sport, and gained a sponsorship from Red Bull in 2015.
Career
At the beginning of the 2013–14 season Choupenitch transferred from Sokol Brno to CS Fides in Livorno, Italy, to train under Paolo Paoletti. He reached the final at the A Coruña World Cup before being defeated by China's Ma Jianfei and ended up with a silver medal. His victory during the tournament over Olympic champion Andrea Baldini encouraged him to believe he could become a champion in his own right. A few weeks later, he lost against Ma Jianfei in the Venice Grand Prix, this time in the semi-final, and took a bronze medal.In the 2014–15 season, Choupenitch won a silver medal at the Shanghai Grand Prix, losing in the final to the USA's Miles Chamley-Watson. He also represented the Czech Republic at the 2024 Summer Olympics, earning a bronze medal.