Robert Coste
Robert Coste | |
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 Coste at the 1984 Olympics.
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Personal information | |
| Born: | February 2, 1963 Bridgeport, Connecticut |
Sport | |
| Sport: | Fencing |
Medal record | |
| Men's fencing: | Olympic Games Gold, 1984 Los Angeles - Épée, individual Bronze, 1988 Seoul - Épée, individual |
Robert Claude Coste (born February 2, 1963) is a retired American left-handed épée fencer.[1]
Coste is a three-time Olympian, and the sole American Olympic gold medal winner in épée. He is the 1983 individual world champion. He co-owns the Cutting Edge Sports sports management agency with Bernhard Eiger (de).
Table of Contents
Biography
As a teenager, Coste was involved in competitive team and individual fencing. He fenced foil before specializing in épée.[2] Under his personal coach Suzanne Duchenne, Coste developed into a highly competitive left-handed fencer with an aggressive style of play. His individual professional career began in 1981 at the age of eighteen with an impressive performance, winning gold at a competition in St. Louis, Missouri, where he attracted the notice of Olympic selectors.[3]
Alongside competing with Yale Fencing Club, Coste mixed his studies in economics with competitions, achieving individual honors in zone and regional competitions.[4] He participated in the 1982 World Championships in Rome but did not earn a medal. In 1983 he won gold at the World Championship in Vienna, narrowly defeating Edgar Van Assche(nl) in a memorable final.[5]
In 1999, Yale University instituted the Robert C. Coste Award for excellent performance by an individual fencer in NCAA competition. Coste retired from competition following the 1999 World Championships in Seoul.[6]
During his coaching career, Coste coached a number of notable épée fencers, including junior US national champion Dalby Staines, and junior European champion Anna (Annika) Sorensen.
Since 2008, Coste has coached only his son, Jesse Coste, who is also a junior US national champion in épée.
Olympic participation
Coste competed for the USA in men's individual épée at the 1984 Olympics, his debut Olympics, where he achieved rare success for an American fencer by winning the gold medal.[7] After the Games, he maintained his focus on individual sport and declined selection in the national team in 1985 and 1986. Two dry seasons followed, marked only by minor wins at competitions in Lyons, Amsterdam, and Dublin.[8]
A return to form in 1987 and a bronze medal at the Lausanne World Championships culminated in his selection for the 1988 Olympic Games, where he achieved a bronze medal in men’s individual épée.[9]
In 1992, he competed in his third and final Olympic Games, but did not proceed beyond the quarter-finals. Coste was vice chair of the Team USA Athletes Commission in the lead-up to the 1992 Games, and following his participation in 1992, Coste announced that he would not seek to compete at the Olympic level again.[10]
Coste was an expert observer on behalf of USA Fencing in Team USA delegations traveling to the Summer Olympics in 1996 and 2000.[11]
Personal life
Coste was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut.[12] He has a degree in economics from Yale University.[13] He is a noted ambassador for Clean Sport and ran unsuccessfully for election to the IOC Executive in 2008.[14] With Austrian businessman Bernhard Eiger, Coste owns and operates Cutting Edge Sports, a global sports management agency.[15] Coste is President of Cutting Edge Sports USA.[16] Cutting Edge Sports sponsors the Mayer Memorial Prize, awarded annually to an épée fencer to support their participation in the sport,[17] which is named for the late Austrian fencing champion Lorenz Mayer. Coste is unmarried.[18]
In late 2000, Coste relocated to Oslo, Norway, to set up a new office and expand Cutting Edge Sports’ reach in northern Europe.[19][20][21] He returned to the US in August 2001 following Whitewater Capital’s investment of US$50 million in the US arm of Cutting Edge.[22]
In 2017, alongside openly gay Norwegian fencing luminary Torsten Henrik Anker, Coste successfully lobbied for the inclusion of fencing at the 2018 Gay Games in Paris.[23] Coste is a vocal ally of LGBTIQ+ athletes and causes.[24][25][26]