Meet The Coaches

Meet the Coaches

Tsanko Hantov

Tsanko Hantov has been the owner and head coach at Windy City Fencing since 2006, and has extensive experience training fencers at all levels.

Many of Tsanko’s students in the last 20 years has been highly recruited from the top US colleges as : Stanford, Columbia NY, Duke, Notre Dame, Yale  ,Ohio State and many more.  Lots of his fencers were offered athletic scholarships .

He competed in the 2000 Olympic Games and won a Bronze Medal at the 2001 World Championships in the Modern Pentathlon. In 2003 Tsanko finished 5th at the European Championship in the Czech  Republic . In 2004 he was 7th at the European Championship in Albena, Bulgaria. In 2007 he won the South America Open Championship in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil . He has competed in 11 World Pentathlon Junior and Senior  Championships and has won several medals from  World Cups and International events.

Tsanko was National Senior Champion in 1998 and National Junior Champion in 1995 and 1996 in Men’s Epee in Bulgaria. He is a graduate of the National Sports Academy, Sofia, Bulgaria.
After his 2004 Olympic trial, he moved to USA with his family. In 2012 Tsanko became a US citizen.

Sergiy Kravchenko

Coach Sergiy Kravchenko graduated National University of  Physical Education and Sports of Ukraine.

(Kiev, Ukraine) as teacher of physical education, fencing/modern pentathlon coach. He also graduated Didorenko Lugansk State University of  Internal Affairs (Lugansk, Ukraine)- law department with the specialty – lawyer.

In his sports career Sergiy was a 1997-2005 Ukrainian National  Team member in Modern Pentathlon. In 1998  he become three-time World Junior Champion,/ Usti Nad Labem, Czech Republic/ in individual competition, team and team-relay competitions.

As a fencing coach ,Sergey Kravchenko have over 10 years of coaching experience working with every ages and levels.
He started working at Windy City Fencing in Jan 2017

Mark Wheeler

Mark has been fencing for over 40 years and coaching for over 12 years.

Mark earned his Moniteur certification in epee and foil in 2011 and has experience working with

beginners to National Champions and youth to veterans. Mark has been coaching his students at

regional and national competitions for over 10 years.

Before moving to Chicago in 2019, he had been coaching and co-leading the adult/veteran epee

program at the Academy of Fencing Masters in Sunnyvale, CA.

Mark is an active competitor on the veteran epee circuit and has been a finalist in over 10

veteran NACs and National Championships.  He won the Vet 60 Epee Championship at the

Summer Nationals in 2015, earned a berth on the 2015 national veteran team, and competed at

the Veteran World Championships in Limoges, France. He has maintained his A rating in epee

for over 12 years as a veteran fencer.

Igor Kholopov

TBA

Ania Garina

Ania Garina was born and raised in Kiev, Ukraine.
Coached by her father Aleksander Garin in 1992 Ania became the youngest member of the Ukrainian National Fencing team where as a part of the team she won two bronze medals at World Championships, silver and bronze medals at European Championships, gold, silver and bronze at World Universiade Games as well as many World Cups and Grand Prix’s. Ania graduated from Ukrainian National University of Physical Education with the degree in sport and physical education. In 2004 Ania received full scholarship from Wayne State University where she was a three-time national champion  (2004-05, 2007) and a four-time First Team All-American. Ania Garina was the first three-time NCAA champion in women’s epee history and only the fourth women in NCAA fencing history and first in women’s epee to win back-to-back NCAA Championships. In 2007 Ania graduated WSU with the degree in an accounting and in 2013 she was inducted into the WSU Athletic Hall of Fame. Since 2009 Ania is a competing member of the Windy City Fencing club and beginners coach who introduces little musketeers to a beautiful sport of Fencing.