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 a competition in

fencing at the 2004 Summer Olympics Fencing at the 2004 Summer Olympics took place at the Fencing Hall at the Hellinikon Olympic Complex. Ten gold medals were awarded in individual and team events, further divided into three styles of fencing: épée, foil and sabre. Fencing i ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

. A total of 37 men from 21 nations competed in this event. Each nation was limited to 3 fencers. Competition took place in the Fencing Hall at the

Helliniko Olympic Complex The Hellinikon Olympic Complex is a closed, partially demolished sports complex, situated at Hellinikon in the south Athens, approximately 16 kilometres from the Olympic Village. It was built on the site of the former Hellinikon International Airp ...

on August 17. The event was won by Marcel Fischer of Switzerland, the nation's first victory in the event and first medal of any color since 1952. Wang Lei's silver was China's first medal in the men's individual épée. Defending champion

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

earned bronze, finishing a set of three different-colored Olympic medals in the event (silver in 1992, gold in 2000). Kolobkov was the fourth man to earn three medals in the event and had the best record of any of the four; only

Ramón Fonst Ramón Fonst Segundo (July 31, 1883 – September 9, 1959) was a Cuban Fencing, fencer who competed in the early 20th century. He was one of the greatest world fencers, individual and by team; he was born and died in Havana. Biogr ...

(with two gold medals) had more individual Olympic success in the men's épée. It was the fifth consecutive Games in which a Russian fencer reached the podium, including medals for Russian fencers competing for the Soviet Union (1988) and Unified Team (1992).

Background

This was the 24th 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. Four of the eight quarterfinalists from 2000 returned: gold medalist (and 1992 silver medalist)

of Russia, silver medalist

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 ...

of France, fourth-place finisher Marcel Fischer of Switzerland, and eighth-place finisher Zhao Gang of China. The reigning (2003) World Champion was

Fabrice Jeannet Fabrice Jeannet (born 20 October 1980 in Fort-de-France, Martinique) is a retired French épée fencer. Jeannet won the gold medal in the épée team event at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics and a silver medal in the individual épée in 200 ...

of France; Kolobkov (1993, 1994, and 2002) and Obry (1998) were also prior World Champions. Algeria made its debut in the event. France and the United States each appeared for the 22nd 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 Greece Standard Time (

UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. This time is used in: As standard time (year-round) ''Principal cities: Cairo, Pretoria, Cape ...

)

Results

Preliminary round

As there were more than 32 entrants in this event, five 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

Yahoo! Sports Athens 2004 Summer Olympics Fencing Results
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fencing At The 2004 Summer Olympics - Men's Epee Men's epee Men's events at the 2004 Summer Olympics