Albert Axelrod

Axelrod was Jewish,[5] the son of Russian Jewish immigrants who had fled the pogroms, grew up in the Bronx.[6] A heart murmur kept Axelrod from participating in most sports, so his mother encouraged him to learn fencing at Stuyvesant High School in New York City.[4] After graduation in 1938, he studied with 1920 Olympic champion Giorgio Santelli and won amateur titles as a member of the Salle Santelli club.[7]

Axelrod served in the US Navy in World War II, and then attended the City College of New York.[4] His college team reached the National Team Foil Championships in 1948, the same year he was U.S. Intercollegiate Fencing Association and NCAA Champion.[3]

Axelrod was ranked # 1 in the United States in 1955, 1958, 1960, and 1970. He was in the top ten 22 times in the years 1942 to 1970. He was a five-time winner of the National Foil Team Championship (1940, 1950, 1952, 1954, and 1958), and his team won the National Three-Weapon team crown five times (1949, 1952, 1954, 1962, and 1963).[3]

He was a member of the United States World Championship team four times. His best placing was fifth, in 1958.[3]

Axelrod was on five U.S. Olympic Teams (1952–68).[7] He won the bronze medal in Individual Foil competition at the 1960 Summer Olympics.[3]

He was also a member of four U.S. Pan American Games teams. He won three team gold medals, one team silver, and four individual silvers in Foil.[3]

Axelrod, who was Jewish, won many gold and silver medals in his six appearances at the World Maccabiah Games.[3]

"I have no purely defensive moves", Axelrod told The New York Times in 1966. "Everyone attributes my skill to the fact that I'm a physical freak, that I have tremendously fast reflexes. I'm not a natural athlete. When it comes to fencing, I'm completely synthetic. I had to practice arduously and break down into tiny components every move I make.[4]