Fencing at the 1924 Summer Olympics

Fencing at the Games of the VIII Olympiad
←  1920 1928  →

At the 1924 Summer Olympics, seven fencing events were contested. A women's event, the individual foil, was held for the first time.

Scoring controversy

After the games, an Italian and a Hungarian settled a scoring controversy with a real duel. ^[1] Aldolfo Contronei, described in some sources as a 45-year-old fencing critic for an Italian newspaper ^[2] and others as the captain of the Italian foil team, ^[3] fought Giorgio Santelli, the 27-year-old son of the Hungarian Olympic team's coach Italo Santelli. Giorgio Santelli had invoked the Code Duello in order to fight in the place of his 60-year-old father. The duel was fought in the town of Abbazia near the Hungarian border with heavy sabers. The duel was terminated after only two minutes of combat time when Santelli must have landed a tierce of quarte in the side of Contronei's forehead.

A further duel resulted when Gyorgy Kovacs, a Hungarian judge at the Games also involved in the causes of the earlier duel, fought one of the Italian team, Oreste Puliti, four months after the Games over allegations made by Kovacs and other judges. ^[4]

Medal summary

Men's events

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Individual épée details	Charles Delporte   Belgium	Roger Ducret   France	Nils Hellsten   Sweden
Team épée details	France Lucien Gaudin Georges Buchard Roger Ducret André Labatut Lionel Liottel Alexandre Lippmann Georges Tainturier	Belgium Paul Anspach Joseph De Craecker Charles Delporte Fernand de Montigny Ernest Gevers Léon Tom	Italy Giulio Basletta Marcello Bertinetti Giovanni Canova Vincenzo Cuccia Virgilio Mantegazza Oreste Moricca
Individual foil details	Roger Ducret   France	Philippe Cattiau   France	Maurice Van Damme   Belgium
Team foil details	France Lucien Gaudin Philippe Cattiau Jacques Coutrot Roger Ducret Henri Jobier André Labattut Guy de Luget Joseph Peroteaux	Belgium Désiré Beurain Charles Crahay Fernand de Montigny Maurice Van Damme Marcel Berre Albert De Roocker	Hungary László Berti Sándor Pósta Zoltán Schenker Ödön Tersztyanszky István Lichteneckert
Individual sabre details	Sándor Pósta   Hungary	Roger Ducret   France	János Garay   Hungary
Team sabre details	Italy Renato Anselmi Guido Balzarini Marcello Bertinetti Bino Bini Vincenzo Cuccia Oreste Moricca Oreste Puliti Giulio Sarrocchi	Hungary László Berty János Garay Sándor Pósta József Rády Zoltán Schenker László Széchy Ödön Tersztyánszky Jenő Uhlyárik	Netherlands Adrianus De Jong Jetze Doorman Hendrik Scherpenhuyzen Jan Van Der Wiel Maarten Hendrik Van Dulm Henri Jacob Wynoldy-Daniels

Women's events

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Individual foil details	Ellen Osiier   Denmark	Gladys Davis   Great Britain	Grete Heckscher   Denmark

Participating nations

A total of 240 fencers from 23 nations competed at the Paris Games: ^[5]

•   Argentina  (13)(men:13 women:0)
•   Austria  (5)(men:5 women:0)
•   Belgium  (19)(men:19 women:0)
•   Chile  (1)(men:1 women:0)
•   Cuba  (6)(men:6 women:0)
•   Czechoslovakia  (7)(men:7 women:0)
•   Denmark  (11)(men:7 women:4)
•   Egypt  (3)(men:3 women:0)
•   France  (24)(men:20 women:4)
•   Great Britain  (20)(men:16 women:4)
•   Greece  (6)(men:6 women:0)
•   Hungary  (10)(men:9 women:1)
•   Italy  (19)(men:19 women:0)
•   Netherlands  (17)(men:14 women:3)
•   Norway  (4)(men:4 women:0)
•   Poland  (5)(men:4 women:1)
•   Portugal  (10)(men:10 women:0)
•   Spain  (13)(men:13 women:0)
•   Sweden  (9)(men:6 women:3)
•   Switzerland  (10)(men:7 women:3)
•   Turkey  (1)(men:1 women:0)
•   United States  (21)(men:19 women:2)
•   Uruguay  (6)(men:6 women:0)

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	France	3	3	0	6
2	Belgium	1	2	1	4
3	Hungary	1	1	2	4
4	Denmark	1	0	1	2
	Italy	1	0	1	2
6	Great Britain	0	1	0	1
7	Netherlands	0	0	1	1
	Sweden	0	0	1	1
Totals (8 entries)		7	7	7	21

References

1. "SPORTS - Fencing". www.olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 2008-08-22.
2. "Notes for Men of Iron". www.koryu.com. Koryu.com. Retrieved 2008-08-22.
3. "From Fencing to Duelling - Paris, 1924". www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/. h2g2. Archived from the original on July 22, 2012. Retrieved 2008-08-22.
4. "From Fencing to Duelling - Paris, 1924". www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/. h2g2. Archived from the original on July 18, 2012. Retrieved 2008-08-22.
5. "De Wael's Full Olympians". Archived from the original on 2012-10-21. Retrieved 2009-08-25.