June 24, 2004

QUEENS, N.Y. -- Former St. John's University fencer Keeth Smart is recognized in the June 28 edition of People magazine as one of the "50 Hottest Bachelors."

Smart, a 2000 graduate, four-time All-American and two-time NCAA Champion, is one of nine athletes, and five who will compete in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece to be profiled by the magazine.

He will be one of three former Red Storm fencers competing for the United States team this summer. Smart and former teammate Ivan Lee will compete in the saber, and will be coached by current St. John's Head Coach Yury Gelman. They will be joined by Jon Tiomkin, who will compete in the foil.

This will the second time Smart competed in the Olympics, as he was a member of the United States team that competed in the 2000 Games in Australia.

Smart and Lee recently competed in a World Cup competition in New York City, where they led the United States team to the gold medal, the first-ever gold won by a United States team in international competition. Team USA posted a 45-35 win over Spain to win the NYC Grand Prix of Fencing at Hunter College on June 13.

The United States team was led by Lee, a two-time All-American at St. John's, who finished third. Smart, who was ranked No. 1 in the world last year, placed 25th overall.

In the current world rankings, Lee is ranked 19th and Smart is ranked 23rd in the world.

Lee, Smart and their sabre teammates will depart for Cuba on Wednesday, where they will compete in the final World Cup tuneup before the Olympic Games this weekend.