Fencing at the 1984 Summer Olympics

Fencing was one of the sports that were held outside Los Angeles at the 1984 Olympics. Instead it took at the Long Beach Convention Centre some 22 miles (35 kilometres) south of the main Olympic Stadium. The boycott from the Communist bloc cast a shadow over the tournament and a large number of top contenders were missing from Los Angeles. Reigning World Champions forced to miss the Games were Aleksandr Romankov (USSR – men’s foil), Vasil Etropolski (Bulgaria – men’s sabre) and the Soviet Union’s men’s sabre team. In addition medal hopefuls from Hungary, Cuba, East Germany and Poland were also absent. In the Eastern Europeans’ absence Italy won the most gold medals, with three, and were tied with France as winners of most medals in total with seven. There was a historic first Olympic title for China in women’s foil – the first time a nation from outside Europe had won Olympic gold for 80 years. Eight fencers won two medals but only one, foilist Mauro Numa of Italy, returned home with two gold medals.