Charlotte Lembach (born 1 April 1988) is a French right-handed
sabre
A sabre ( French: sabʁ or saber in American English) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such as th ...
fencer, 2018 team world champion, two-time
Olympian, and 2021 team Olympic silver medalist.
Lembach competed in the
2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games and the
2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
Career
Lembach was first called into the French national team for the
2009 European Championships in Plovdiv, but a hamstring injury prevented her from attending the competition. She was selected again for the
2012 European Championships in Kiev, but did not manage to earn a qualification for the
2012 Summer Olympics in London.
After the Games, three members of the French team retired, leaving Lembach as team elder: at the age of 24 she acquired the nickname “Mamie” (“Granny”). The
2012–13 season saw her breakthrough: at Tianjin she climbed on the podium of a
World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...
event, which no other French sportswomen had accomplished in two years and a half. She however failed to earn a medal in the
2013 European Championships and the
2013 World Championships.
In the
2013–14 season Jean-Philippe Daurelle replaced
Cyril Tahon as coach of the French women's sabre team, which Lembach described as “a breath of fresh air”.
Under his coaching Lembach won a silver medal in the Dakar World Cup and climbed on the podium in Chicago and Beijing.
In the
European Championships held in her native Strasbourg, Lembach defeated teammate
Cécilia Berder, but failed in the second round against No.1 seed
Vassiliki Vougiouka
Vassiliki Vougiouka ( el, Βασιλική Βουγιούκα; born 20 June 1986, in Cholargos, Athens, Greece), often known as Vaso Vougiouka (Βάσω Βουγιούκα), is a Greek female sabre fencer, silver medallist in the 2012 and 2013 E ...
and finished 13th.
In the team event, France defeated Germany, but were overcome in the semi-finals by reigning champions Russia. They prevailed over Poland to come away with a bronze medal. In the
World Championships
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
at Kazan, she fell in the second round again, this time at the hands of
Małgorzata Kozaczuk of Poland. In
the team event France defeated Hungary, then created an upset by beating Russia in the quarter-finals and Italy in the semi-finals. Their winning streak was snapped in the final by the United States led by twice-Olympic champion
Mariel Zagunis
Mariel Leigh Zagunis (born March 3, 1985) is an American sabre fencer. She is a two-time Olympic champion in the individual sabre (2004 and 2008) and the first American to win a gold medal in Olympic fencing. She was Team USA flag bearer in th ...
and France came away with a silver medal.
Lembach is a student at
EDHEC Business School
EDHEC Business School (french: Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales du Nord) is a French grandes écoles business school with campus locations in: Lille, France; Nice, France; Paris, France; London, UK; and Singapore. EDHEC offers its flagship Mas ...
.
Medal Record
Olympic Games
World Championship
European Championship
Grand Prix
World Cup
References
External links
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archive
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lembach, Charlotte
1988 births
Living people
French female sabre fencers
Sportspeople from Strasbourg
Fencers at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Olympic fencers for France
Alsatian people
Fencers at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Olympic silver medalists for France
Olympic medalists in fencing
Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics
Mediterranean Games competitors for France
Competitors at the 2022 Mediterranean Games
21st-century French women