The men's

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 ...

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 36 men from 20 nations competed in this event. Nations had been limited to three fencers each since 1928. 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 Air ...

on August 16. The event was won by

Brice Guyart Brice Guyart (born 15 March 1981 in Suresnes) is a foil fencer from France. He won a gold medal in the team foil event at the 2000 Summer Olympics and a gold in the individual foil at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He is the older brother of Astrid ...

of France, the nation's ninth victory in the men's foil (surpassing Italy for most all-time). Italy took the other two medals, with

Salvatore Sanzo Salvatore Sanzo (born 26 November 1975) is an Italian Olympic fencer. He won a team gold and individual silver medal in Athens and an individual bronze medal in Beijing in foil. Biography In 2002 he married the teammate Frida Scarpa, the couple ...

earning silver and

Andrea Cassarà Andrea Cassarà (born 3 January 1984) is an Italian left-handed foil fencer, two-time individual European champion, 2011 individual world champion, and three-time Olympics medalist. Cassarà won a bronze medal in the individual men's foil even ...

winning the bronze medal match.

Background

This was the 24th 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). Two of the eight quarterfinalists from 2000 returned: silver medalist

Ralf Bißdorf Ralf Bißdorf (born 15 March 1971) is a German former fencer. He won a silver medal in the individual foil event at the 2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 20 ...

of Germany and fifth-place finisher

of Italy. Sanzo had won the 2001 world championship, and his teammate

Simone Vanni Simone Vanni (born 16 February 16, 1979, in Pisa, Italy) is an Italian Olympic Games, Olympic foil fencer. He won a team gold medal in Athens in the 2004 Olympics. References External links

* 1979 births Living people Italian male foi ...

the 2002 title. The reigning (2003) world champion was

Peter Joppich Peter Joppich (born 21 December 1982) is a German foil fencer. Biography Joppich is a five-time World Champion in Foil with four Individual titles and one Team title. He won the gold medal in 2010 World Fencing Championships after beating Lei ...

of Germany. For the second consecutive Games, no nations made their debut in the men's foil. France and the United States each made their 22nd appearance, tied for most of any nation; France had missed only the 1904 (with fencers not traveling to St. Louis) and the 1912 (boycotted due to a dispute over rules) foil competitions, while the United States had missed the inaugural 1896 competition and boycotted the 1980 Games altogether.

Competition format

The 1996 tournament had vastly simplified the competition format into a single-elimination bracket, with a bronze medal match. The 2004 tournament continued to use that format. Bouts were to 15 touches. Standard

rules regarding target area, striking, and priority were used.

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, four 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 ...

Final classification

References

Yahoo! Sports Athens 2004 Summer Olympics Fencing Results
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fencing at the 2004 Summer Olympics - Men's foil Men's foil Men's events at the 2004 Summer Olympics