Ivan James Lee (born March 31, 1981) is an American former Olympic sabre fencer and coach. He was a two-time

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Men's Sabre Champion, a five-time national sabre champion, and was inducted into the US Fencing Association Hall of Fame. He worked as a police officer in the

New York City Police Department The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...

from 2008 until 2022, and as the Women's Fencing Team Head Coach at

Long Island University Long Island University (LIU) is a private university in Brooklyn and Brookville, New York, United States. The university enrolls over 16,000 students and offers over 500 academic programs at its main campuses, LIU Brooklyn and LIU Post on Long I ...

from 2019 until December 2023. Lee was elected Chair of the board of directors of USA Fencing in September 2023. He was suspended by USA Fencing in December 2023, for his alleged conduct that would constitute a violation of the U.S. Center for SafeSport (SafeSport) Code. Lee resigned when he was informed of his suspension. His suspension was upheld by SafeSport on January 4, 2024, lifted by SafeSport on January 16 while it continued its investigation of Lee’s conduct, and then reimposed by SafeSport in February 2024. In February 2024 Lee was arrested on charges of

forcible touching Forcible touching, under New York State law, is a sex offense.Lisa Forbes (2022)''I Can Take it from Here; A Memoir of Trauma, Prison, and Self-Empowerment''/ref> A person found guilty of it may be sentenced to up to one year in prison, up to t ...

, sexual abuse, and harassment; in September 2024 he pleaded guilty at Kings County Criminal Court in Brooklyn to forcible touching-intimate parts and harassment in the second degree — physical contact. Lee was arrested in March 2024 in Nassau County with regard to a second incident, and in December 2024 Lee pled guilty with regard to the second incident in Nassau County District Court in New York to third-degree sexual abuse and forcible touching-intimate parts. The charge carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail. According to court documents, he admitted to forcibly touching a victim without their consent. On January 31, 2025, SafeSport permanently banned Lee from U.S. Olympic sports due to his criminal dispositions for sexual misconduct.

1994–2014; competitive career

Lee was born and raised in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, living in

East Flatbush East Flatbush is a residential neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. East Flatbush is bounded by Crown Heights and Empire Boulevard to the north; Brownsville and East 98th Street to the east; Flatlands, Canarsie and the Lon ...

. He later lived in

Cambria Heights, Queens Cambria Heights is a residential neighborhood in the southeastern portion of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded by Springfield Boulevard and Francis Lewis Boulevard to the west, the Elmont, Nassau County border on the east, ...

, and

Jamaica, Queens Jamaica is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It has a popular large commercial and retail area, though part of the neighborhood is also residential. Jamaica is bordered by Hollis, St Albans, and Cambria Heights to the ea ...

, in New York City. He began fencing in 1994 at the

Peter Westbrook Foundation Peter Jonathan Westbrook (April 16, 1952 – November 29, 2024) was an American saber fencer. He was a 13-time national and 3-time Pan American Games saber champion, five-time Olympian, and an Olympic bronze medalist. He founded the Peter West ...

(PWF) in New York City, which he continued to represent throughout his competitive career along with the

Fencers Club The Fencers Club in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, is the oldest fencing club in the Western Hemisphere. It is a member of the Metropolitan Division of the U.S. Fencing Association. Established in 1883, it has evolved into a 501(c)(3) not-for- ...

in Manhattan. Lee graduated from

Brooklyn Technical High School Brooklyn Technical High School, commonly called Brooklyn Tech and administratively designated High School 430, is a public specialized high school in New York City that specializes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It is on ...

in Brooklyn, in 1999. He received a full athletic scholarship to St. John's University in

Queens, New York Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

. There, Lee won the

individual

sabre A sabre or saber ( ) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the Early Modern warfare, early modern and Napoleonic period, Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such a ...

title in 2001 and 2002, and along with fellow future Olympian and longtime clubmate, friend, and sabre fencer

Keeth Smart Keeth Thomas Smart
''The New York Times'', 27 May 2007. (born July 29, 1978) is an American

Lee was a member of the 2001 U.S. Junior World Sabre team. He anchored the team to its first men's world title at the 2001 Junior World Championships in Gdańsk, Poland, and also became the first man of African American descent to win a world fencing championship. He was awarded the USOC's Male Athlete of the Year Award for Fencing in 2001. He went on to win individual and team

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

s at the

2003 Pan American Games The 2003 Pan American Games, officially the XIV Pan American Games () and commonly known as Santo Domingo 2003, were held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from August 1 to 17, 2003. The successful bid for the Games was made in the mid-1990 ...

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

, Dominican Republic. He graduated from St. John's in January 2004 with a bachelor's degree in Journalism. PWFATHENS

Lee was a member of the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, Greece. He placed 12th in the individual competition and 4th in the team competition."Ivan Lee,"
Olympics.com. To be successful in fencing, which he likened to physical chess, he said it was most important to be intelligent and "brutally aggressive." After failing to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Team, Lee retired in 2008. Prior to his retirement, in 2008 he won his fifth U.S. Senior Championship, a title he had also won in 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2006, but his poor results in international tournaments kept him from making the US Olympic Team. Lee was inducted into the US Fencing Association Hall of Fame in 2014. He has been a competitive veteran fencer, and won two consecutive national titles in Vet-40 men’s saber.

2015–23; college coach and USA Fencing Chair

Lee was the Head Coach of the Women's Fencing Team of

from March 2019 until December 1, 2023, when he resigned. It was his first coaching position, and he said: "I love coaching. It’s very rewarding." At the 2021 NCAA National Championship, his freshman fencer Laura Fekete—whom he had recruited—won the gold medal in

épée The (, ; ), also rendered as epee in English, is the largest and heaviest of the three weapons used in the sport of fencing. The modern derives from the 19th-century , a weapon which itself derives from the French small sword. This contains a ...

, the first NCAA fencing championship in school history. In 2022 she won the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

. Fekete said: "Ivan helped me with everything he could. He was always by my side." Lee was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of USA Fencing in September 2023.

2023–present; suspension, arrests, guilty pleas, lifetime ban

Lee was suspended by USA Fencing on December 22, 2023, for his alleged conduct that would constitute a violation of the

SafeSport The United States Center for SafeSport is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization set up to reduce sexual abuse of minors and athletes in Olympic sports in the United States. Established in 2017 under the Safe Sport Authorization Act, Prot ...

Code. Lee resigned as Chairman of the Board when he was informed of his suspension. On January 4, 2024, his suspension was upheld by the U.S. Center for SafeSport (SafeSport). On January 16, 2024, SafeSport lifted his suspension, while it continued its investigation of Lee’s conduct, but it then reimposed it in February 2024. Lee was arrested in February 2024 on

, sexual abuse, and harassment charges. They related to an incident in November 2023 in a college gym while he was the Head Coach of the Women's Fencing Team of Long Island University. He pleaded guilty September 3, 2024, at Kings County Criminal Court in Brooklyn to forcible touching-intimate parts and harassment in the second degree — physical contact. Lee was arrested in March 2024 in Nassau County with regard to a second incident, and in December 2024 Lee pled guilty with regard to the second incident in Nassau County District Court in New York to third-degree sexual abuse and forcible touching-intimate parts. The charge carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail. According to court documents, he admitted to forcibly touching a victim without their consent. On January 31, 2025, SafeSport permanently banned Lee from U.S. Olympic sports due to his criminal dispositions for sexual misconduct.

Professional and volunteer work

Police officer

Lee worked as a police officer in the

(NYPD) from July 2008 until February 2022. He spent his first six years on the police force in the NYPD transit bureau, and his last seven years as a physical training instructor at the

Police Academy A police academy, also known as a law enforcement training center, police college, or police university, is a training school for police cadets, designed to prepare them for the law enforcement agency they will be joining upon graduation, or to o ...

Other

He also served as the Fencing Commissioner for the

Public Schools Athletic League The Public Schools Athletic League, known by the abbreviation PSAL, is an organization that promotes student athletics in the public schools of New York City. It was founded in 1903 to provide and maintain a sports program for students enrolled ...

(PSAL) from 2008 to 2019. The PSAL is a scholastic athletic program that coordinates sports competitions for New York City public high schools. He was a board member of the

Rosalyn Yalow Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (July 19, 1921 – May 30, 2011) was an American medical physicist, and a co-winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (together with Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally) for development of the radioimmunoass ...

Charter School in

the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

from 2014 until 2023. He has served as a deacon, administrator, and youth leader at his church, taught classes at PWF, mentored high school and college students at the USOC's F.L.A.M.E. (Finding Leaders Among Minorities Everywhere) program, and counseled teenagers at New Horizons Ministries. He founded a fencing club called Naviblue Sports in New York. Lee has also been the Head Sabre Coach at Long Island Fencing Center in Carle Place, New York.

Personal

Ivan is the only child of Wesley Desmond Lee and Cynthia Lee. His mother, a retired teacher, heard from a fellow teacher who was the mother of future Olympic medalists

Erinn Smart Erinn Smart (born January 12, 1980Erinn Smart
, USA Fencing. Accessed July 27, 2012.) is an American fo ...

and

Keeth Smart Keeth Thomas Smart
''The New York Times'', 27 May 2007. (born July 29, 1978) is an American

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, the PWF. Mrs. Lee talked her son into trying it. Lee initially instead wanted to play baseball in high school and beyond. But his father, an auto mechanic and pastor of Ebenezer Missionary Chapel in Brooklyn, convinced him to take fencing seriously because of what he saw as the college scholarship possibility in fencing. Lee and his wife, Shameeka Waddell Lee, have two children.

Awards and honors

*2004 U.S. Olympic Team member *Five-time Division 1 Men's Sabre National Champion (2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008) *2021, 2022, 2023 Veteran-40 Men's Sabre National Champion *2003 Pan American Men's Sabre Champion *2003 Pan American Men's Sabre Team Champion *2001, 2002 NCAA Men's Sabre Champion *2001 USOC Male Athlete of the Year, Fencing *US Fencing Association Hall of Fame inductee, class of 2014 (Removed 2025)

References

External links

Peter Westbrook Foundation
*Cindy Bent (May 16, 2001)

U.S. Fencing Association (''press release'') * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Ivan 1981 births Living people American male sabre fencers Brooklyn Technical High School alumni Fencers at the 2003 Pan American Games Fencers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2003 Pan American Games Olympic fencers for the United States New York City Police Department officers Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States in fencing American people convicted of sexual assault People from Cambria Heights, Queens People from Jamaica, Queens St. John's Red Storm fencers St. John's University (New York City) alumni 21st-century American sportsmen