The men's foil was one of three fencing events on the Fencing at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme. It was held on the second day of competition, 7 April. Eight fencers took part, with the preliminary fencing involving a round-robin held in two groups. The first group was Pierrakos-Mavromichalis, Delaborde, Callot, and Poulos. The second was Komninos-Miliotis, Balakakis, Gravelotte, and Vouros. The two fencers that were undefeated in their groups faced each other in the final for gold and silver medals, while Pierrakos-Mavromichalis and Vouros were awarded third place. Vouros's second win came from a forfeit by Komninos-Miliotis.
Background
This was the first appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1908 (when there was a foil display only rather than a medal event).[1]
Competition format
The event featured a pool-play semifinals round followed by a single final. Each bout was to three touches. Standard foil rules were used, including that touches had to be made with the tip of the foil, the target area was limited to the torso, and priority determined the winner of double touches. One unusual rule was that the president could award a touch for an off-target strike if the defender had improperly obscured the target area. The pool round consisted of two pools of four fencers each, with each pool fencing a round-robin. The winner of each pool advanced to the final, which was a single bout between the two fencers.[1][2][3]
Schedule
The fencing began at 10 a.m. on the second day of events.
Date
Time
Round
Gregorian
Julian
Tuesday, 7 April 1896
Tuesday, 26 March 1896
10:00
Semifinals Final
Results
Semifinals
Semifinal A
The Official Report has de Laborde losing to Poulos, 3–1, but other sources indicate de Laborde won 3–2. The latter is shown below.[4][1][3]
The IOC website provides a full classification of the eight fencers.[3] De Laborde is placed above Komninos-Miliotis, apparently due to Komninos-Miliotis not starting his bout against Vouros. It is unclear why Balakakis is placed above Poulos, who had a better touches for record.
Lampros, S.P.; Polites, N.G.; De Coubertin, Pierre; Philemon, P.J.; Anninos, C. (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck. (Digitally available at Archived 2008-05-27 at the Wayback Machine )
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