He is a five-time Pan-American Championship title holder, and the 2015 Pan American Games champion in saber.

[12][13] His maternal grandparents, both Holocaust survivors, were Ruth (née Schmukler) Goetzler (born in Tarnów, Poland, she survived the Holocaust hidden in a barn by a Polish farmer) and Mark Goetzler (born in Jasło, Poland, he also lived in Samarkand, Uzbekistan).

[12][13] He has an older brother (Phil, who fenced for Princeton University) and a twin sister (Sally, who competed in gymnastics and lacrosse).

[18] As a freshman in 2014–15, he was a First Team All-American, All-Ivy League, and finished third at the NCAA Fencing Championships with a 22–2 record.

[29] In March 2016, while winning the gold medal at the Seoul Grand Prix in South Korea, he defeated 2014 world silver medalist Gu Bon-gil of Korea in the quarterfinals, 2014 world champion Nikolay Kovalev of Russia in the semifinals, and Iranian Mojtaba Abedini in the final.

[31] In March 2017, he won the individual saber in the 2017 NCAA Fencing Championships, and was again named a first-team All-American.

[34] In June 2017 he won an individual saber silver medal at the 2017 Pan American Fencing Championships.

[8] ' In February 2018 (while ranked 6th in the world) he beat two-time Olympic champion Áron Szilágyi of Hungary to win the saber fencing World Cup event in Padua, Italy, and in April 2018 Dershwitz won a bronze medal at a men's saber grand prix in Seoul, South Korea.

[37][38][39] In February 2019 he won the gold medal at the Men's Saber World Cup in Warsaw, Poland.

[40] After his win, he posted on his Instagram account: "Amazing and emotional day as my mother told me this morning that my Polish grandparents, who came to America 75 years ago, would be watching over me today.

[54] In the competition he defeated reigning Hungary's world champion and three-time Olympic champion Áron Szilágyi (trailing Szilagyi 10-4, he rallied and won 15-13), Korea's Gu Bon-gil (two-time Olympic gold medalist), Italy's World No.

[58] Dershwitz also won gold medals in both individual and team saber in fencing at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada.

[1][60] He qualified by being in the top 14 of the FIE adjusted official ranking list, and was the youngest member of the US Olympic fencing team.

"[11] Dershwitz commented on his rise from a viewer of the Games as a teenager, "just to think that in three short years ... it can go from watching on a computer screen ... screaming in my pajamas at 3 in the morning to actually being on the biggest stage in sports, it’s so hard to picture.

[69] He won the individual men's saber event, beating Harvard teammate Philippe Guy in the finals.

[70] In the team event, Dershwitz competed alongside Philippe Guy, Ben Stone, and Matt Rothenberg.