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 contain ...

was one of ten

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, ...

events on the fencing at the 2000 Summer Olympics programme. It was the twenty-third appearance of the event. The competition was held on 16 September 2000. 42 fencers from 22 nations competed. Each nation was limited to three fencers. The event was won by

Pavel Kolobkov Pavel Anatolyevich Kolobkov (russian: link=no, Павел Анатольевич Колобков, born 22 September 1969) is a retired Russian (and formerly Soviet) épée fencer. He won one gold, two silver and three bronze medals at five Oly ...

of Russia, the nation's second consecutive victory in the men's individual épée (

Aleksandr Beketov Aleksandr Beketov (born 14 March 1970) is a Russian fencer and Olympic champion in the épée competition. He won a gold medal in the épée individual and a team silver medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the ca ...

had won in 1996). Russia joined a five-way tie for third-most gold medals in the event at two (behind Italy at six and France at five). Kolobkov, who had a silver medal in 1992 representing the Unified Team, was the 11th man to win multiple medals in the event. France's

Hugues Obry Hugues Obry (born 19 May 1973) is a retired French fencer and current coach. He won a gold medal in team épée at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, together with Érik Boisse, Fabrice Jeannet and Jérôme Jeannet. He won two silver medals a ...

took silver in Sydney, returning France to the podium after a one-Games absence snapped a four-Games medal streak. Lee Sang-ki earned South Korea's first medal in the event with his bronze.

Background

This was the 23rd 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. Three of the eight quarterfinalists from 1996 returned: silver medalist

Iván Trevejo Iván Trevejo (born 1 September 1971) is a Cuban-born French fencer, silver Olympic medallist in 1996 and team world champion in 1997 for Cuba. He earned a team bronze medal for France in 2013. Biography He won a silver medal in the individual ...

of Cuba, fourth-place finisher

Iván Kovács Iván Kovács (born 8 February 1970) is a Hungarian 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 weapo ...

of Hungary, and seventh-place finisher Kaido Kaaberma of Estonia. Also returning were 1992 gold medalist Éric Srecki of France and silver medalist

of the Unified Team (representing Russia since 1996), both of whom had been defeated in the Round of 16 in 1996, as well as 1988 gold medalist Arnd Schmitt of West Germany (now Germany). Schmitt was the reigning World Champion, having won in 1999. Srecki had won both World Championships before (1995) and after (1997) his Olympic victory.

(1998) and Kolobkov (1993 and 1994) joined them, with the Sydney field including the last four World Champions having won the last six World Championships. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Ukraine each made their debut in the event. France, Sweden, and the United States each appeared for the 21st time, tied for most among nations.

Competition format

The competition continued to use the entirely single-elimination (with bronze medal match) format introduced in 1996. All bouts were to 15 touches.

Schedule

All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (

UTC+10 UTC+10:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +10:00. This time is used in: As standard time (year-round) ''Principal cities: Brisbane, Gold Coast, Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, Port Moresby, Dededo, Saipan'' North Asia *Russia – ...

)

Results

Preliminary round

As there were more than 32 entrants in this event, ten first round matches were held to reduce the field to 32 fencers.

Main tournament bracket

The remaining field of 32 fencers competed in a

single-elimination tournament A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

to determine the medal winners. Semifinal losers proceeded to a

bronze medal match Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

Results summary

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fencing at the 2000 Summer Olympics - Men's epee Epee Men Men's events at the 2000 Summer Olympics