In the world of international fencing, few stories are as remarkable as Alexander Gorbachuk’s transformation of Japanese epee. Over the past 15 years, his coaching has elevated Japan from a peripheral presence to an Olympic powerhouse, fundamentally reshaping the landscape of world fencing. The historic achievements at both Tokyo and Paris Olympics – securing Individual Gold and Team Silver medals – represent not just athletic triumphs, but the culmination of a carefully crafted long-term development program. In this first part of our extensive interview, Gorbachuk provides unprecedented insights into the journey that led to Japan’s emergence as a dominant force in world epee fencing, the challenges of building a world-class program from scratch, and the intricate dynamics of managing a high-performance team through multiple Olympic cycles.

Reshaping World Fencing

Igor Chirashnya: Your achievements have completely transformed the landscape of world fencing. The Japanese team didn’t just become strong – they became practically unbeatable. Looking at the last two Olympics, both individual and team events, these are truly historic achievements. What were the key takeaways after Tokyo, and what goals were set for the next four years?

Alexander Gorbachuk: Of course, this medal was a sensation, especially for epee. All professional coaches who have been in fencing for a long time understand that epee is one of the most serious and difficult weapons, the most massive, where there are really many teams, where you still have to fight just to make it to the top 16. This has been proven repeatedly – even top 8 teams sometimes don’t make it to 16.

In a professional fencing world it is a big sensation that another team appeared on the horizon, consistently showing high results – and not just results, but pretty interesting fencing. Honestly, there are moments when I would sit with the guys, assisting or in the stands watching, and just enjoy the fencing. I got a real pleasure from watching fencing, some individual bouts when it wasn’t just about winning, but about interesting techniques, tactics, execution of moves and combinations that many people do, when bouts are interesting and fulfilling.

Of course after Tokyo’s Team Gold, there was euphoria. But there also were many envious people who said, “You were lucky! You didn’t qualify, you only got in because you had a quota.” But these are the rules of the game. Yes, we didn’t qualify, but we were always in contention – winning World Cup stages, getting podium finishes. This wasn’t a coincidence. Everything came together well for us, and we won.

Post-Olympic Challenges

IC: After such a monumental success in Tokyo, how did you approach maintaining motivation and rebuilding for Paris?

AG: After the Olympics, I gathered all the guys and said: “Let’s see: who will go with me to Paris, and who wants to achieve what goals?” Uyama stood up first and said: “Sasha, I’m sorry.  I’ve achieved what I wanted, I want to do something else.” Although I really needed Uyama – tall, young, only 30 years old, could fence for years to come, I thanked him. Of course, I was sorry to lose such a fighter.

Minobe and Yamada stood up and said: “We want to work for the team, help the team.” Naturally, young Matsumoto and Komata said: “We want to make the team” because they weren’t on the team. And only Kano stood up and said: “I want an individual gold medal. I already have a team Gold, but not an individual yet.” These were his actual words. It wasn’t strange to me, but surprising that he expressed it that way.

He went for this medal, followed everything disciplinarily. He never even drank any alcohol, not even a drop. While others might allow themselves something at celebrations, a little bit, but Kano – never. He had a goal, and it materialized.

The Challenge of Team Selection

IC: How did the final team for Paris come together? We know about Kano, but how were the other three selected?

AG: The situation was complex. Kano was obviously the leader. Yamada too, but he had been struggling with an elbow injury for six months. I had been considering not including Minobe, planning to use Matsumoto instead. I was preparing him and told him, “I will prepare you for the team, you’re young, you’ll be helping Kano and everyone else now.”

Everyone thought I was choosing between Matsumoto and Komata for the final spot. They assumed Minobe, Yamada, and Kano were locked in. But I was actually considering removing Minobe due to his age. Matsumoto had been fencing well everywhere – both in individual and team events. There were some small slip-ups, but it was already stable fencing that could really help the team and bring success.

But at the last moment – all these great regalia of Minobe, and his authority – I thought that same core had to remain. There were various nuances, many small nuances that I don’t want to reveal yet. But I trusted him more because this was likely his last Olympics. Matsumoto still has great potential, he’s a young guy, and he’ll have his chance. For Minobe it was the last one, and he really worked. I saw how hard it was for him, but he was working really hard to be on the team, completed all the program.

Managing Disappointment and Team Dynamics

IC: Matsumoto doesn’t make it – he’s still young, 21-22 years old. His whole life is ahead of him. And naturally, there’s disappointment, like with any person. How does a head coach deal with such strong disappointments or grievances when it seems you’re already making it, but then they take someone who, in your opinion, might not be as suitable?

AG: This was probably my Soviet, Ukrainian mentality showing through. Foreigners don’t have this, probably never did. When the Federation asked me to announce the team in Paris, right after Matsumoto had made the top 8, and Yamada was second, and making the top 8 Matsumoto was counting on it. When I announced the team, of course, tears appeared in his eyes, there was disappointment, it was an unpleasant moment.

I tried to calm him down, of course. He said to me “but you said I was on the team.” I said, “Yes-yes-yes, but that’s how it turned out.” Then, after I calmed him down a bit, talked with him, I called all the guys over and said: “Guys, I understand that what I’m about to tell you now is something new for you.” I said that over these three years, Matsumoto had really helped to qualify the team for the Olympics, that he was instrumental in qualifying it, and everyone knows this. I simply said: “You should share at least 15 to 20 percent of all your prize money with him.” They’d never had anything like this, never had it before.

IC: First of all, it’s interesting, what kind of money are we talking about? What are the prize amounts in Japan?

AG: The prize money in Japan is very small. For instance, in Tokyo they received 50,000 dollars each from the Olympic Committee. Each person gets it. They got $50K, $20K, and $10K or $15K – these were the bonuses for first, second and third place. And it turns out that they took second place. But this amount after the Tokyo Olympics was paid in Yen. Now, the sums in yen are the same for Paris. However, if before the dollar was about 100 yen, now after the yen fell, the dollar is about 160 yen. So the prize is much, much smaller now in dollar equivalent. So small that it’s just laughable.

IC: So they receive the same amount in yen?

AG: Yes, from the Japanese Olympic Committee they receive the same amount in yen. But now each gets their own from their corporate sponsors. Or rather, not sponsor, but employer, in each company. That is, they’re all attached to some company where they get a good salary – some better, some more, some less, some privileges from companies, bonuses.

Kano, for example, is employed by JAL airline company. They probably added maybe 150 thousand dollars, plus a car, plus some other bonuses. Yamada at that time in Tokyo was just in the army. They thanked him – a certificate, some kind of cup, flowers, maybe a little star, 10 percent to a small salary. Naturally, he got offended, sent them off. And naturally, richer companies found him. His salary became significantly better, a few times more, plus bonuses, and so on.

And Minobe, for example, is with Nexus. These are gaming machines throughout Japan. The former president of the Japanese Fencing Federation, a multi-millionaire, billionaire – is one of the co-founders of this gaming machine company. He paid Minobe a million dollars for Tokyo. Though 40 percent had to be given in taxes. But they’re all doing well, all the guys feel good, and everything is fine with them.

The Corporate Support System

IC: In other countries state services, like the army, police, aviation, deal with professional athletes. In Japan, it’s mainly large corporations. Why is this important to them? Why do these companies find it important to have a person they pay for, who doesn’t bring much corporate benefit to the company?

AG: I think it’s at the state level. Probably it’s prestigious to have some popular athlete or creative person. This was an eight-year program leading up to Tokyo, where at the state level, it was either an order or a program. Maybe they got some tax breaks – I can’t say for sure, I’m not certain.

Let me give you an example of how this works. Yuki Ota – we had such a famous fencer, a foilist. He got more money for silver than people in other sports got for gold. He was everywhere: advertising, television, his charisma was everywhere. So, there were some local competitions, some championship, some people came – bosses of companies come to watch, friends of friends. And some boy, well, the guy was 25 years old, and he was probably ranked 15th. And somehow he accidentally beat Ota 15:14 for entry into the top 8. And some company boss was sitting there and said: “Wow! He beat Ota! That’s something!” And he approached him and said: “Would you like to work in my company?” The guy: “Of course I want to, it’s a good company.” Just because he beat Ota, he took him into his company.

The Federation submits applications, let’s say two people from the Fencing Federation, badminton, ping-pong, some other sports. That is, guys come, they set some day, company managers come, sometimes company bosses come, deputies. Big hall. Guys come out, one by one tell: “Well, I’m such and such an athlete, such and such a result, would like to achieve an Olympic medal.” They write something down, and then invitations come to each one for some company. Someone might get two, they can choose the better one, someone gets one. And that’s how they take them, they get jobs in companies. And this is for life.

They train, but they have a condition that they must come to this company once a week and do something – either study or work. The rest of the time they train, go to training camps, come once a week – go to work at this company. Plus, each individual, depending on the company, has additional personal arrangements. They can arrange bonuses for some medals, for equipment. Some have equipment for free, others pay some nominal fee. For instance, Minobe only pays 10 percent. Bought something, paid only 10 percent. The company covers the other 90 percent.

IC: And do people know these athletes? Does the public know Kano?

AG: Of course, as I say, people in Japan know them, many of the top fencers. Especially Kano now – he’s on television, invited to all kinds of programs, there are already tournaments named after him in Japan, children’s tournaments, and various events. Every two weeks he has trips around all regions, demonstrations, talks, shows, events. They pay money for all this, it’s very popular. People here love him – he is super popular and people recognize him. The truth, many times people even recognized me! A couple of times I went in to a store, wearing an Olympic costume, and people recognized me, saying: “Oh, you are our team fencing coach!” It was a nice feeling. But Kano, Yamada, the guys – they are real heroes here!

This interview has been edited down to keep it at a readable length and split into three parts. Parts 2 and 3 of the interview witll follow. This interview was approaved by Coach Alexander Gorbachuk for publication.

AFM is so grateful to Coach Alexander Gorbachuk for his time and openness. His candid answers and remarkable discipline are both exciting and inspiring.