Fencing at the 1908 Summer Olympics – Open foil

Olympic demonstration event

The foil event was an open demonstration event next to the four official fencing events on the fencing at the 1908 Summer Olympics programme. A total of 22 fencers from 12 nations competed and fenced 12 matches; eight matches in the French style and four in the Italian style. The matches took place on 23 July 1908, at the Prince's Hall in London from 21:00.

Open foil
at the Games of the IV Olympiad
VenuePrince's Hall, London
Dates23 July 1908
Competitors22 from 12 nations
«19041912»

While, the men's foil event was an official event at the earliest three Olympics (1986, 1900 and 1904) and afterwards also from 1912, it was a demonstration event in 1908. The aim of the event was to demonstrate the different styles of foil fencing being practiced in the different countries. Because the styles were very different, it wasn’t possible to compare them. There were no official results of the matches, as the scores were not kept during the matches.

As it was the only open event, it was the only event that could be entered by women. British champion Millicent Hall entered for the event and so became the first women Olympic fencer, as official female medal events were on the Olympic programme from 1928.[1]

Matches

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Bout Fencer 1 Nation 1 Fencer 2 Nation 2
1 John Jenkinson   Great Britain Robert Montgomerie   Great Britain
2 Simon Okker   Netherlands Hans Bergsland   Norway
3 Vilém Goppold z Lobsdorfu, Sr.   Bohemia Vlastimil Lada-Sázavský   Bohemia
4 Ejnar Levison   Denmark Herbert Sander   Denmark
5 Marcel Berré   Belgium Jean Delori   Belgium
6 Riccardo Nowak   Italy Abelardo Olivier   Italy
7 Walter Gates   South Africa Percy Nobbs   Canada
8 Simon Okker   Netherlands Max Dwinger   Netherlands
9 Péter Tóth   Hungary Béla Zulawszky   Hungary
10 Albert Naumann   Germany Jakob Erckrath de Bary   Germany
11 Millicent Hall   Great Britain John Jenkinson   Great Britain
12 Robert Quennessen   France Eugène Olivier   France

References

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  1. "Foil, Individual, Open". Olympedia. Retrieved 22 November 2020.