The men's

épée The ( or , ), sometimes spelled epee in English, is the largest and heaviest of the three weapons used in the sport of fencing. The modern derives from the 19th-century , a weapon which itself derives from the French small sword. This contains ...

was one of eight

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 1980 Summer Olympics At the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, eight events in fencing were contested. Men competed in both individual and team events for each of the three weapon types (épée, foil and sabre), but women competed only in foil events. They were held be ...

programme. It was the eighteenth appearance of the event. The competition was held from 27 to 28 July 1980. 42 fencers from 16 nations competed. Each nation was limited to 3 fencers. The event was won by

Johan Harmenberg Johan Georg Harmenberg (born 8 September 1954 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish Olympic and world champion epee fencer. Early and personal life Harmenberg was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He completed two years of study at the Massachusetts ...

of Sweden, the nation's first victory in the event and first medal of any color in the men's individual épée since 1924. Silver went to

Ernő Kolczonay Ernő Kolczonay (15 May 1953 – 3 October 2009) was a Hungarian épée fencer, who won two Olympic silver medals in the Épée competitions. He was a member of the Hungarian fencing team that won the world championship in Hamburg, 1978. H ...

of Hungary, extending the nation's podium streak to four Games despite the retirement of three-time medalist

Győző Kulcsár Győző Kulcsár (18 October 1940 – 19 September 2018) was a Hungarian fencing, fencer. He competed in the individual and team épée events at the 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1976 Olympics and won four gold (one individual and three team) and ...

Philippe Riboud Philippe Riboud (born 9 April 1957) is a French fencer. He won two golds, two silvers and two bronze medals at three Olympic Games. He also competed at the Mediterranean Games in the individual épée event winning gold medal in 1979 and a silv ...

of France took bronze. Sweden's

Rolf Edling Rolf Erik Sören Edling (born 30 November 1943) is a retired Swedish épée fencer. He competed at the 1968, 1972, 1976 and 1980 Olympics and won a team gold medal in 1976. His best individual result was fourth place in 1980. Edling was born in ...

, a two-time World Champion, made his third final in the event, but once again missed the podium.

Background

This was the 18th appearance of the event, which was not held at the first Games in 1896 (with only foil and sabre events held) but has been held at every Summer Olympics since 1900. With West Germany boycotting the Games and

retiring, none of the 1976 medalists returned. Two of the other three finalists did, however: fourth-place finisher István Osztrics of Hungary and sixth-place finisher (as well as 1972 finalist)

of Sweden.

of France was the reigning (1979) World Champion; Sweden's

had won in 1977 and Edling had been World Champion in 1973 and 1974. (The 1975 and 1978 World Champion and 1976 Olympic champion,

Alexander Pusch Alexander Pusch (born 15 May 1955 in Tauberbischofsheim, Baden-Württemberg) is a German fencer and Olympic champion in épée competition. Biography Alexander Pusch fought for the Fencing-Club Tauberbischofsheim. He won a gold medal in the in ...

, was from the boycotting West Germany.) Kuwait made its debut in the event. Belgium, France, Great Britain, and Sweden each appeared for the 16th time, tying the absent United States for most among nations.

Competition format

The 1980 tournament continued to use the mix of pool and knockout rounds used in 1968 and 1976. The competition included two pool rounds, followed by a double-elimination knockout round, finishing with a final pool round. In each pool round, the fencers competed in a round-robin. Bouts in the round-robin pools were to 5 touches; bouts in the double-elimination round were to 10 touches. No barrages were held. * Round 1: 8 pools of 5 or 6 fencers each. The top 3 in each pool (24 total) advanced. * Round 2: 4 pools of 6 fencers each. The top 4 in each pool (16 total) advanced. * Elimination rounds: A double-elimination tournament. The 4 fencers who won in both of the first two rounds advanced, as did the 2 fencers who reached the end of the repechage. * Final round: 1 pool of 6 fencers.

Schedule

All times are

Moscow Time Moscow Time (MSK, russian: моско́вское вре́мя) is the time zone for the city of Moscow, Russia, and most of western Russia, including Saint Petersburg. It is the second-westernmost of the eleven time zones of Russia. It has b ...

(

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

Round 1 Pool A

Round 1 Pool B

Round 1 Pool C

Round 1 Pool D

Round 1 Pool E

Round 1 Pool F

Round 1 Pool G

Round 1 Pool H

Round 2

Round 2 Pool A

Round 2 Pool B

Round 2 Pool C

Round 2 Pool D

Double elimination rounds

Winners brackets

=Winners group 1

=Winners group 2

=Winners group 3

=Winners group 4

Losers brackets

=Losers group 1

=Losers group 2

Final round

Final classification

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fencing at the 1980 Summer Olympics - Men's epee Epee men Men's events at the 1980 Summer Olympics