has been named the head coach of Air Force fencing, announced today by Director of Athletics. A former Olympian, Elgeziry returns to the Academy, where he was an assistant coach for three seasons from 2014-17.Elgeziry replaces recently-retired Abdel Salem, who was the head coach at Air Force for the previous 22 seasons with the women's team (1997-2019) and 21 with the men's team (1998-2019).Elgeziry returns to the Academy after serving two seasons as the assistant coach at Cornell."We are thrilled to have coach Elgeziry rejoin the Falcon Athletics Family," Pine said. "He was instrumental in helping to build our program as an assistant and I can't wait to see that progress continue now under his leadership as our head coach. Omar understands our mission of building leaders of character for our Air Force and nation through the sport of Fencing and it's great to have him back home in Colorado Springs.""I am excited to be back at Air Force," Elgeziry said. "It is truly an honor to have the Academy put their trust in me to lead the future leaders of this country. It is also an honor to be filling the shoes of coach Abdel Salem, and I am excited to lead the Air Force Fencing to even more future success."At Cornell, Elgeziry helped the Big Red to reach new heights. The 2018-19 team had two individuals finish in the top 10 of their respective weapon, while the team's 14-place finish was its highest in the NCAA era. Elgeziry helped freshman Megan Eno become just the fourth fencer in Big Red history to earn first-team All-Ivy honors when she placed third overall in the epee competition at the 2019 Ivy League Fencing Round-Robin. Eno went on to win silver at the Northeast Regional, and captured honorable mention All-America honors with a ninth-place finish at the NCAA tournament.During his tenure as the assistant coach at Air Force, Elgeziry helped train 11 student-athletes into qualifying positions for the NCAA Tournament. During that time, he spent one year as the national epee coach for USA Pentathlon, after serving as an assistant coach and administrator for the Egypt Modern Pentathlon Olympic team from 2014-17. Elgeziry went on to make history as the first Olympic coach to qualify for the same Olympic Games as an athlete, as he finished 23rd overall with 1,403 points.A world-class athlete, Elgeziry has competed in and medaled in more than 50 modern pentathlon and fencing events, including a silver medal at the 2016 Pentathlon World Cup #2 in Rio De Janeiro and a fourth-place finish at the 2016 Pentathlon World Championships in Moscow.As a fencer, Elgeziry is a two-time senior Egyptian champion in epee (2010, 2011). He also won a gold medal in epee at the Junior World Cup in Egypt in 2005, after a fifth-place finish the previous year.A native of Cairo, Egypt, Elgeziry began coaching shortly after arriving in the United States, acting as a private fencing coach in Florida and founding the Sunshine Region Modern Pentathlon Club.Elgeziry obtained a bachelor's in civil engineering from Ain Shams University in 2008.