- Tamir Bloom
Dr. Tamir Bloom (born
December 24 ,1971 , inNew York City ) is an Americanepee fencer.Fencing career
Olympics
At the 1996
Atlanta Games, Bloom placed 31st in individualepee . He was a member of the U.S. épée team that finished 8th, after being eliminated by Italy in the quarterfinals, 45-44.At the end of a busy 3rd year that cut into his training, Bloom took a break from medical school for the 1999-2000 academic year to focus on preparing for Sydney. But when a torn ACL caused him to miss the World Championships (where he could have qualified), he postponed an operation, wore a brace, and attempted to qualify by accumulating enough points in international tournaments. In May 2000, he won the Western Hemisphere Zonal qualification tournament in
Buenos Aires , making the team in his final attempt to qualify for the Olympics.At the 2000 Sydney Games, Bloom lost in the 2nd round of individual épée to
Arnd Scmitt , the top-ranked épée fencer in the world. Bloom finished 29th. [http://oldsite.usfencing.org/Results/2000Olympics.asp] [http://www.fencing.net/forums/thread3147.html]Pan American Games
Bloom won silver medals in the individual and team foil events at the 1995
Pan American Games .US Championships
Shortly after the 1996 Olympics, he began his studies at
Mount Sinai School of Medicine in his hometown ofNew York City . While a full-time student, he continued fencing, winning the individual épée U.S. national championship in both 1998 [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE0DE103DF936A25755C0A96E958260] and 1999. [http://www.fencingonfairfield.com/epee_champions.htm]World Championships
Bloom has competed at 4 World Championships, with his best individual result being a 31st place finish in 1994; he also was a member of the U.S. team épée which placed 17th.
Bloom finished 20th in the team épée event at the 1997 World Championships,
He was unable to compete at the 1999 World Championships in
Seoul because of a tornanterior cruciate ligament in his right knee which he suffered playing basketball in October 1999. [http://oldsite.usfencing.org/Official/BOD200007M.pdf] Bloom made the trip to Seoul without mentioning the injury, but days before the event he decided to withdraw. Since there was not enough time for an alternate to fly over and take his spot, the team's coach, 4-time OlympianMichael Marx , took Bloom's spot; the American trio finished 15th, failing to earn the U.S. a berth in the team épée competition at the 2000 Olympics. Bloom missed a significant number of competitions while injured, but he made up by flying to a different country every weekend until he accumulated enough World Cup points to qualify individually for Sydney.Hall of Fame
Bloom, who is
Jewish , was inducted into the National Jewish SportsHall of Fame in 2001. [http://www.jewishsports.org/jewishsports/detail.asp?id=202]Miscellaneous
*Bloom and his family have dual U.S./Israeli citizenship.
*Bloom's first cousin,
Gil Ofer , competed in thejudo competition for Israel at the Sydney Olympics. They had not seen each other in 10 years, but competed in the same building within 2 days of each other.*Attended
Millburn High School .*Is
left-handed .*Bloom's father is artist Murray Bloom.
Links
* [http://www.columbia.edu/cu/pafc/Pan_American_Games_Results.htm#E Pan American Games results]
* [http://oldsite.usfencing.org/Official/BOD200007M.pdf June 2000 USFA Disciplinary Panel Report suggesting Bloom be publicly reprimanded for failing to inform the USFA of his knee injury prior to the 1999 World Championships]
* [http://www.ivy50.com/story.aspx?sid=10/16/2006 Ivy@50 article]
* [http://www.jewishsports.org/jewishsports/detail.asp?id=202 National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame bio]
* [http://www.jewsinsports.org/Olympics.asp?sport=olympics&ID=173 Jews in Sports bio]
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