Fencing at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's foil

fencing at the Olympics

The men's foil was one of the fencing events in the 1896 Summer Olympics. It was on 7 April. There were 8 fencers. There was 2 semifinal round-robin rounds.

Men's foil
at the Games of the I Olympiad
BASA-3K-7-422-25-1896 Summer Olympics.jpg
A picture of two fencers performing The Grand Salute
VenueZappeion
Date7 April 1896
Competitors8 from 2 nations
Medalists
Gold medal   France
Silver medal   France
Bronze medal   Greece
Bronze medal   Greece
 1900»

The first semifinal round had Perikles Pierrakos-Mavromichalis, Henri de Laborde, Henri Callot, and Ioannis Poulos. The second semifinal round had Konstantinos Komninos-Miliotis, Georgios Balakakis, Eugène-Henri Gravelotte, and Athanasios Vouros. Callot and Gravelotte won every round in their groups. They went against each other in the final round. Pierrakos-Mavromichalis and Vouros were both given third place.

Background

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The foil has been at every Summer Olympics except 1908.[1]

Competition format

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The event had a semifinal round. After the semifinals, there was a final. You would win a match if you "touched" a player three times. The normal foil rules were used. However, there was a different rule that the president could give someone a touch if the defender did not defend himself correctly. The semifinals had 2 rounds. Each of these had 4 fencers. The fencers played everyone else in their round. The winner of each pool would go to the final round. The final round was a single round with two fencers.[1][2][3]

Schedule

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The fencing started at 10 a.m.. It was on the 2nd day of events.

Date Time Round
Gregorian Julian
Tuesday, 7 April 1896 Tuesday, 26 March 1896 10:00 Semifinals
Final

Results

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Semifinals

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Semifinal A

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It was written that de Laborde lost to Poulos, 3–1. However, other sources say that de Laborde won 3–2. In the table, it shows the 3-2 version.[4][1][3]

Pos Fencer W L TF TA Qual. HC PPM HdL IP
1   Henri Callot (FRA) 3 0 9 4 Q 3–1 3–1 3–2
    Perikles Pierrakos-Mavromichalis (GRE) 2 1 7 4 1–3 3–1 3–0
3   Henri de Laborde (FRA) 1 2 5 8 1–3 1–3 3–2
4   Ioannis Poulos (GRE) 0 3 4 9 2–3 0–3 2–3
Source: Olympedia

Semifinal B

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Pos Fencer W L TF TA Qual. EHG AV KKM GB
1   Eugène-Henri Gravelotte (FRA) 3 0 9 5 Q 3–2 3–2 3–1
    Athanasios Vouros (GRE) 2 1 8 4 2–3 3–1
3   Konstantinos Komninos-Miliotis (GRE) 1 2 5 7 2–3 3–1
4   Georgios Balakakis (GRE) 0 3 3 9 1–3 1–3 1–3
Source: Olympedia
Pos Fencer W L TF TA EHG HC
    Eugène-Henri Gravelotte (FRA) 1 0 3 1 3–1
    Henri Callot (FRA) 0 1 1 3 1–3
Source: Olympedia

Final classification

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This is the results according to the IOC.[3]

Rank Fencer Nation
  Eugène-Henri Gravelotte   France
  Henri Callot   France
  Perikles Pierrakos-Mavromichalis   Greece
  Athanasios Vouros   Greece
5 Henri de Laborde   France
6 Konstantinos Komninos-Miliotis   Greece
7 Georgios Balakakis   Greece
8 Ioannis Poulos   Greece

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Foil, Individual, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 19 November 2020.
  2. Official Report, p. 65.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Athens 1896 Fencing Foil Individual Men Results". Olympics.com. Retrieved 2021-09-03.
  4. Official Report, p. 67.