23 fencers from 7 nations competed in the amateur sabre competition.
The event was won by
Georges de la Falaise
Louis Venant Gabriel Le Bailly de La Falaise (1866 in Luçon – 1910 in Paris) was a French fencer. He participated in Fencing at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris and won the gold medal in the sabre, defeating fellow French fencer Henri Masso ...
of France, with his countryman
Léon Thiébaut
Henri Léon Thiébaut (19 November 1880 in Paris – 13 October 1956 in Paris) was a French fencer who competed in the late 19th century and early 20th century. He participated in Fencing at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris and won the silve ...
placing second. Austrian
Siegfried Flesch
Siegfried Friedrich "Fritz" Flesch (11 March 1872 – 11 August 1939) was an Austrian sabre Fencing, fencer who competed during the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Olympic fencing career
Born in Brno, Flesch was 27 years old when ...
was third.
Background
This was the second appearance of the event, which is the only fencing event to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The competition had a much smaller, yet also more international, field than the other 1900 fencing events; less than half of the entrants were French.
France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland all made their debut in the men's sabre. Austria was the only nation to have competed at both the 1896 and 1900 appearances of the event.
Competition format
The event used a three-round format (quarterfinals, semifinals, final). Each round used round-robin pool play with actual results counting toward placement (as opposed to foil, which had multiple rounds of jury selection rather than results being used). Standard
sabre
A sabre ( French: sabʁ or saber in American English) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such as th ...
rules were used, except that the target area was the entire body (rather than being limited to above the waist).
[
* Quarterfinals: The 23 fencers competed in four round-robin pools of 5 or 6 fencers each. The top four in each pool advanced to the semifinals. (Because of withdrawals, the fifth-placed fencer in two of the pools advanced).
* Semifinals: The 16 fencers from the quarterfinals were divided into two pools of 8 fencers each. Each pool played a round robin. The top four fencers in each semifinal pool advanced to the final.
* Final: The final pool had 8 fencers.
]
Schedule
Results
Quarterfinals
The fencers competed in four round-robin pools in the first round on 19 and 20 June. The top four fencers in each pool advanced to the semifinals. Which fencers competed in which pools is unknown.
Semifinals
The 16 remaining fencers were divided into two pools of 8. They played round-robin tournaments on 22 June, with four advancing from each pool to the final.
Semifinal A
Semifinal B
Final
The final was a round-robin among the 8 remaining fencers.
Results summary
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fencing at the 1900 Summer Olympics - Men's sabre
Fencing at the 1900 Summer Olympics