The men's foil was one of seven

fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, s ...

events on the

fencing at the 1952 Summer Olympics At the 1952 Summer Olympics, seven fencing events were contested, six for men and one for women. Medal summary Men's events Women's events Medal table Participating nations A total of 286 fencers (249 men and 37 women) from 32 nations comp ...

programme. It was the eleventh appearance of the event. The competition was held from 23 July 1952 to 24 July 1952. 61 fencers from 25 nations competed. All three medallists were left-handed. Nations were limited to three fencers each since 1928. The event was won by Christian d'Oriola of France, the nation's second consecutive victory in the men's foil and sixth overall. D'Oriola was the fifth man to win multiple medals in the event. The silver and bronze medals were won by

Edoardo Mangiarotti Edoardo Mangiarotti (; 7 April 1919 – 25 May 2012) was an Italian fencer. He won a total of 39 Olympic titles and World championships, more than any other fencer in the history of the sport. His Olympic medals include one individual go ...

and

Manlio Di Rosa Manlio Di Rosa (11 September 1914 – 15 March 1989) was an Italian fencer. He won two golds, two silvers and bronze at four different Olympic Games. See also * Italy national fencing team - Multiple medallist References External links * ...

of Italy.

Background

This was the 11th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1908 (when there was a foil display only rather than a medal event). Six of the eight finalists from 1948 returned: gold medalist

Jehan Buhan Jehan is a male given name. It is the old orthography of Jean in Old French, and is rarely given anymore. It is also a variant of the Persian name Jahan in some South Asian languages. People with the given name Jehan * Jehan Adam (15th century ...

and silver medalist Christian d'Oriola of France, bronze medalist

Lajos Maszlay Lajos Maszlay (2 October 1903 – 1 December 1979) was a Hungarian fencer. He won a bronze medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics and another at the 1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska ...

of Hungary, fourth-place finisher John Emrys Lloyd of Great Britain (in his fourth Games), sixth-place finisher

of Italy, and seventh-place finisher Paul Valcke of Belgium. The Italian and French teams, as usual, were strong. For the French, d'Oriola was the 1947 and 1949 world champion and Buhan had been on the podium in 1950 and 1951. For the Italians,

had finished third in 1949 and second in 1951 and

had won in 1951. Colombia, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Turkey each made their debut in the men's foil. The United States made its 10th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the inaugural 1896 competition.

Competition format

The event used a four-round format. In each round, the fencers were divided into pools to play a round-robin within the pool. Bouts were to five touches. The 1952 tournament introduced byes for the fencers from the top 4 nations in the team foil event, who advanced directly to the quarterfinals. Ties were broken through fence-off bouts ("barrages") in early rounds if necessary for determining advancement. Ties not necessary for advancement were either not broken (if at least one fencer had not finished all bouts in the round-robin) or broken first by touches received and then by touches scored. In the final, ties were broken by barrage if necessary for medal placement but otherwise first by touches received and then by touches scored. Standard

foil Foil may refer to: Materials * Foil (metal), a quite thin sheet of metal, usually manufactured with a rolling mill machine * Metal leaf, a very thin sheet of decorative metal * Aluminium foil, a type of wrapping for food * Tin foil, metal foil ...

rules were used, including that touches had to be made with the tip of the foil, the target area was limited to the torso, and priority determined the winner of double touches.Official Report, p. 480. * Round 1: There were 7 pools of 6–8 fencers each. The top 4 fencers in each pool advanced to the quarterfinals. * Quarterfinals: There were 6 pools of 6–7 fencers each. The top 3 fencers in each quarterfinal advanced to the semifinals. * Semifinals: There were 3 pools of 6 fencers each. The top 3 fencers in each semifinal advanced to the final. * Final: The final pool had 9 fencers.

Schedule

All times are

Eastern European Summer Time Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) is one of the names of the UTC+03:00 time zone, which is 3 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a summer daylight saving time in some European and Middle Eastern countries, which makes it ...

(

UTC+3 UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours later than the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Following the ISO 8601 standard, a time with this offset would be wri ...

)

Results

Round 1

The top 4 finishers in each pool advanced to the quarterfinals. Fencers from the four teams that advanced to the final of the men's team foil event received byes through round 1: * Egypt:

Salah Dessouki Salah Asfar Shishtawai J. Dessouki (22 October 1922 – 17 August 2011) was an Egyptian fencer. He won bronze medals in three fencing disciplines across four editions of the World Championships and competed at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olym ...

, Mohamed Ali Riad, and

Mahmoud Younes Mahmoud Khattab Younes (5 March 1915 – 27 June 2001) was an Egyptian épée, foil and sabre fencer. He competed at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics. He competed at the Mediterranean Games in 1951 Events January * January 4 – Ko ...

* France: Jéhan Buhan, Christian d'Oriola, and

Jacques Lataste Jacques Lataste (7 June 1922 – 10 November 2011) was a French fencer. He won two gold medals and a silver in the team foil Foil may refer to: Materials * Foil (metal), a quite thin sheet of metal, usually manufactured with a rolling mi ...

* Italy:

Giancarlo Bergamini Giancarlo Bergamini (2 August 1926 – 4 February 2020) was an Italian fencer. He won one gold and two silver medals at two Olympic Games. Bergamini died in February 2020 at the age of 93. References External links * 1926 births ...

, and

* Hungary:

, Endre Palócz, and

Endre Tilli Endre Tilli (15 August 1922 – 14 August 1958) was a Hungarian fencer. He won a bronze medal in the team foil events at the 1952 and 1956 Summer Olympics. He died aboard KLM Flight 607-E __NOTOC__ KLM Flight 607-E was an international ...

Pool 1

Pool 2

Paul defeated Lund in a barrage for fourth place.

Pool 3

Iesi defeated Thuillier in a barrage for fourth place.

Pool 4

Pool 5

Pool 6

Lindeman and Vîlcea defeated Rodríguez in a three-way barrage for third and fourth places.

Pool 7

Quarterfinals

The top 3 finishers in each pool advanced to the semifinals.Official Report, p. 481

Quarterfinal 1

Quarterfinal 2

Quarterfinal 3

Quarterfinal 4

d'Oriola and Tilli defeated Uralov in a three-way barrage for second and third place.

Quarterfinal 5

Quarterfinal 6

Lubell prevailed over Magnusson, Chelaru, and Fethers in a four-way barrage for third place.

Semifinals

The top 3 finishers in each pool advanced to the final.

Semifinal 1

Tilli defeated Verhalle in a barrage for third place.

Semifinal 2

Dessouki defeated Maszlay in a barrage for third place.

Semifinal 3

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fencing at the 1952 Summer Olympics - Men's foil Foil men Men's events at the 1952 Summer Olympics