Career
Cohen was born in Birmingham, England. He learned to fence while at Downside School, near Bath. He was British Sabre Champion five times and was selected for the British team in four Olympics from 1972 to 1984, although he did not compete at the Moscow Olympics because of a sporting boycott.
While competing as a fencer, he worked for book publishers and became a publishing director of Hutchinson and Hodder & Stoughton. He went on to found his own publishers, Richard Cohen Books, which won the Sunday Times Small publisher of the Year award in 1998. Cohen wrote a book on fencing, By the Sword (2002), with the subtitle A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions.
Cohen was World Veterans’ Sabre Champion in 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2009 and has been European sabre champion eight times, making him the most successful single-weapon fencer of veteran fencing. He has two sons and a daughter and lives in New York City with his wife Kathy Robbins, a literary agent. His daughter, Mary (born 1986), was British épée champion in 2006 and 2011 and has been a member of the British team at World and European championships. In 2010 father (for Northern Ireland) and daughter (for England) competed in the same Commonwealth championships, the first father and daughter to do so.
Read more about this topic: Richard Cohen (fencer)
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