Las Vegas man fluent in fencing, more

By Emily Richmond

Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Heik Hambarzumian, 60, speaks five languages, plays the accordion and classical guitar, and teaches ballroom dancing, mathematics and electronics.

And this summer he won his third national fencing championship in 35 years.

So, yes, you can call him a Renaissance man.

Fencing has surged in popularity in recent years, in part thanks to strong showings by Americans at the Olympics. Hambarzumian, who teaches at Desert Rose Adult High School in North Las Vegas, remembers there were only 800 fencers at the nationals when he won the collegiate title in 1974. This summer at the U.S. Fencing Association’s championships in Dallas, there were more than 4,000 competitors.

The beauty of fencing is that it’s like playing a game of chess with your feet, said Hambarzumian, who in 2004 won his second national title in the 50-plus age division.

“It’s also like boxing,” he says. “But you never get hurt.”

Hambarzumian’s most recent win earned him his 11th trip to the world championships, which will be held in September in Russia.

He was 10 when his family moved from Germany to the United States, settling in San Francisco. Hambarzumian’s sister was the first in the family to pick up a foil, and it didn’t take much persuading for her brother to follow suit.

“I’ve had the Zorro complex since I was a kid,” he said. “Fencing, you don’t have to be a super jock or have lots of muscles. It doesn’t require speed or power, although it’s nice to have, of course. It’s a mental game.”

And he also had a natural talent for the sport, and quickly began winning high school competitions. His career continued at the University of San Francisco. From there, he made a bid for the ultimate dream ­— competing for the United States in the Olympic Games.

He came painfully close.

Three times, he says, he finished fifth at the Olympic trials, one place short of a spot on the team. He was scheduled to go to Moscow in 1980 as the team’s alternate, but the United States ended up boycotting the games.

In the decades that followed he continued to fence, coaching private students in the Bay Area while teaching electronics technology at Heald College.

He came to Las Vegas from San Francisco about 10 years ago, for a marriage that ultimately failed.

“I followed my sweetheart,” he says. “It didn’t work out. That’s life, you know?”

He trains three nights a week at the Red Rock Fencing Center and spends long hours in the gym strengthening his quadriceps for the explosive lunges the elite level of the sport demands.

All the while, he’s teaching classical guitar to 10 students in Desert Rose’s summer school program, and plans to start a fencing class there later this year.

When he last visited Russia 30 years ago the hotels were cheap, the ruble equivalent of $5 per night. But times have changed. He estimated the cost of his trip at $4,200, and is looking for sponsorship.

“This is my last dream, to become a world champion,” he says. “I really believe I have a chance to win it.”