| | Event type
Épée, Individual, Women
| Date | 21 July 1996 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Olympic | |
| Location | Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Georgia | |
| Participants | 48 from 24 countries | |
| Format | Single-elimination tournament. | |
Eight years after the first World Championships in the discipline came the first Olympic épée tournament for women. Once the top seed and World Champion Tímea Nagy had been eliminated the competition was open to French domination. The gold medallist was Laure Flessel from the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. Flessel beat her compatriot Valérie Barlois-Mevel in the final. The two Frenchwomen had shared the bronze medal at the previous year’s World Championship. Flessel would go on to win five Olympic medals – the most by any Frenchwoman in any Olympic sport.
ESP
RUS
POL
CUB
CHN
GRE
SWE
DEN
FIN
SCG
AUS
JPN
LUX
PUR
TUNRound One
| Date | 21 July 1996 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winner of each match advanced to round two. |
Round Two
| Date | 21 July 1996 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winner of each match advanced to round three. |
Round Three
| Date | 21 July 1996 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winner of each match advanced to quarter-finals. |
| Match | Date/Time | Location | Competitor (Seed) | NOC | Result | Competitor (Seed) | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bout #1 | 21 Jul | Piste 1 | Tímea Nagy (1) |  HUN | 15 – 9 | Elisa Uga (16) |  ITA | |
| Bout #2 | 21 Jul | Piste 3 | Valérie Barlois-Mevel (9) |  FRA | 15 – 14 | Gianna Bürki (8) |  SUI | |
| Bout #3 | 21 Jul | Piste 4 | Eva-Maria Ittner (12) |  GER | 15 – 10 | Sophie Moressée-Pichot (5) | FRA | |
| Bout #4 | 21 Jul | Piste 6 | Margherita Zalaffi (13) | ITA | 15 – 8 | Claudia Bokel (4) | GER | |
| Bout #5 | 21 Jul | Piste 1 | Laura Flessel (3) | FRA | 15 – 11 | Viktoriya Titova (14) |  UKR | |
| Bout #6 | 21 Jul | Piste 3 | Adrienn Hormay (6) | HUN | 15 – 9 | Katja Nass (11) | GER | |
| Bout #7 | 21 Jul | Piste 4 | Go Jeong-Jeon (26) |  KOR | 15 – 12 | Leslie Marx (23) |  USA | |
| Bout #8 | 21 Jul | Piste 6 | Gyöngyi Szalay-Horváth (2) | HUN | 15 – 6 | Oksana Jermakova (15) |  EST |
Quarter-Finals
| Date | 21 July 1996 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winner of each match advanced to semi-finals. |
| Match | Date/Time | Location | Competitor (Seed) | NOC | Result | Competitor (Seed) | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bout #1 | 21 Jul | Piste 1 | Valérie Barlois-Mevel (9) | FRA | 15 – 9 | Tímea Nagy (1) | HUN | |
| Bout #2 | 21 Jul | Piste 3 | Margherita Zalaffi (13) | ITA | 15 – 10 | Eva-Maria Ittner (12) | GER | |
| Bout #3 | 21 Jul | Piste 4 | Laura Flessel (3) | FRA | 15 – 12 | Adrienn Hormay (6) | HUN | |
| Bout #4 | 21 Jul | Piste 6 | Gyöngyi Szalay-Horváth (2) | HUN | 15 – 5 | Go Jeong-Jeon (26) | KOR |
Semi-Finals
| Date | 21 July 1996 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winner of each match advanced to final. |
| Match | Date/Time | Location | Competitor (Seed) | NOC | Result | Competitor (Seed) | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bout #1 | 21 Jul | Piste 1 | Valérie Barlois-Mevel (9) | FRA | 15 – 6 | Margherita Zalaffi (13) | ITA | |
| Bout #2 | 21 Jul | Piste 1 | Laura Flessel (3) | FRA | 15 – 10 | Gyöngyi Szalay-Horváth (2) | HUN |
Final Round
| Date | 21 July 1996 |
|---|
| Match | Date/Time | Location | Competitor (Seed) | NOC | Result | Competitor (Seed) | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bout 1/2 | 21 Jul | Piste 1 | Laura Flessel (3) | FRA | 15 – 12 | Valérie Barlois-Mevel (9) | FRA | |
| Bout 3/4 | 21 Jul | Piste 1 | Gyöngyi Szalay-Horváth (2) | HUN | 15 – 13 | Margherita Zalaffi (13) | ITA |