Fencing at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's sabre

fencing at the Olympics

The men's sabre was one of the fencing events in the 1896 Summer Olympics. The event was on 9 April. The event was won by Ioannis Georgiadis of Greece.Telemachos Karakalos won in second place. He was also Greek. Holger Nielsen won third. He was from Denmark.

Men's sabre
at the Games of the I Olympiad
FILE:Ioannis Georgiadis.JPG
Ioannis Georgiadis
VenueZappeion
Date9 April 1896
Competitors5 from 3 nations
Medalists
Gold medal   Greece
Silver medal   Greece
Bronze medal   Denmark
 1900»

Background

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This was the first time they used fencing at an Olympics. This is the only fencing event that has been at every Summer Olympics game. There were 3 Greeks who competed. The Greeks were Telemachos Karakalos, Ioannis Georgiadis, and Georgios Iatridis. There was also a Danish athlete, Holger Nielsen. There was an Austrian athlete, Adolf Schmal. The favorite athlete was Schmal.[1]

Competition

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The event had a pool-play final. Each round would be won if you touched the other players 3 times. The normal Sabre rules were used. The only difference was that you could hit the entire body. In normal Sabre rules, you could only hit above the waist. The competition had one round with all five fencers. In the round, every player played each other. This means that there were 10 matches.[1][2][3]

Schedule

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The sabre was in the morning of the fourth day of events.

Date Time Round
Gregorian Julian
Thursday, 9 April 1896 Thursday, 28 March 1896 Morning Final

Results

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The competition started before the king and crown prince came to watch. They arrived after 2 rounds. When they arrived, the officials restarted the competition. Before the restart, Schmal had beaten Georgiadis and Nielsen. After the restart, Schmal lost to both of them.[1]

Georgiadis never lost a round and won the gold medal. Karakalos only lost one round. Nielsen lost two matches. Schmal only won to Latridis. Latridis lost all of his matches.

Pos Fencer W L TF TA IG TK HN AS GI
    Ioannis Georgiadis (GRE) 4 0 12 6 3–2 3–2 3–2 3–0
    Tilemachos Karakalos (GRE) 3 1 11 5 2–3 3–2 3–0 3–0
    Holger Nielsen (DEN) 2 2 10 9 2–3 2–3 3–2 3–1
4   Adolf Schmal (AUT) 1 3 7 11 2–3 0–3 2–3 3–2
5   Georgios Iatridis (GRE) 0 4 3 12 0–3 0–3 1–3 2–3
Source: Olympedia, OR pp. 77–78

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Sabre, Individual, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  2. Official Report, p. 77.
  3. "Athens 1896 Fencing Sabre Individual Men Results". Olympics.com.