Fencing at the 1896 Summer Olympics

At the 1896 Summer Olympics, three fencing events were contested at the Zappeion. They were prepared and organized by the Sub-Committee for Fencing. The épée event for men was cancelled. All fencing was done to three touches. Events were held on 7 April and 9 April 1896. 15 athletes from four nations competed; 8 fencers from 3 nations won one medal each.

Medal summary

These medals are retroactively assigned by the International Olympic Committee; at the time, winners were given a silver medal.

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Foil	Eugène-Henri Gravelotte France (FRA)	Henri Callot France (FRA)	Periklis Pierrakos-Mavromichalis Greece (GRE)
Masters foil	Leonidas Pyrgos Greece (GRE)	Jean Maurice Perronet France (FRA)	none
Sabre	Ioannis Georgiadis Greece (GRE)	Tilemachos Karakalos Greece (GRE)	Holger Nielsen Denmark (DEN)

Participating nations

Fencing before the king of Greece, 1896, by André Castaigne

A total of 15 fencers from four nations competed at the Athens Games:

• Austria (1)
• Denmark (1)
• France (4)
• Greece (9)

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Greece	2	1	1	4
2	France	1	2	0	3
3	Denmark	0	0	1	1

Austria had fencers compete, but won no medals.

Sub-Committee for Fencing

• Ioannis Phokianos, president
• Georgios Streit, secretary
• Ioannis Yenissarlis
• Loukas Belos
• Nikolaos Politis
• Chas. Waldstein
• Dimitrios Aiginitis
• Dimitrios Sekkeris
• Spyridon Koumoundouros
• Konstantinos Manos
• Spyridon Antonopoulos

See also

• List of Olympic medalists in fencing (men)
• List of Olympic medalists in fencing (women)

References

• 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])
• 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])
• Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-342-X.