Fencing at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's sabre
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 | ||||||||||
| Venue | Zappeion | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | 9 April 1896 | |||||||||
| Competitors | 5 from 3 nations | |||||||||
| Medalists | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| 1900» | ||||||||||
Background
changeThis 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
changeThe 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
changeThe 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
changeThe 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 |
References
change- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Sabre, Individual, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
- ↑ Official Report, p. 77.
- ↑ "Athens 1896 Fencing Sabre Individual Men Results". Olympics.com.
- 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 [1] Archived 2008-05-27 at the Wayback Machine)
- Mallon, Bill; Widlund, Ture (1998). The 1896 Olympic Games. Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0379-9. (Excerpt available at [2] Archived 2008-04-11 at the Wayback Machine)
- Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-342-X.