Épée, Individual, Men

With 67 competitors, it took four rounds of round-robin pools to determine the 12 finalists. The final pool consisted of four Frenchmen, four Belgians, two Italians and lone fencers from Sweden and Denmark. One of the Frenchmen qualifying for the final was the defending champion, Armand Massard. In the end the gold was won by Belgian’s Charles Delporte who won eight of his 11 bouts. Four fencers tied for second with seven victories – Massard, Roger Ducret (FRA), Émile Cornereau (FRA), and Sweden’s Nils Hellsten. The four met in a round-robin barrage to determine 2nd thru 5th place. Ducret and Hellsten won two bouts each and then faced each other in a barrage for the medals, with Ducret winning silver, Hellsten settling for the bronze.

Ducret had already won gold in Paris in the individual foil. He competed in five fencing events at the 1924 Olympics, skipping team sabre, and won medals in all five events. Delporte competed at three Olympics – 1920, 1924, 1928 – winning this gold medal and a silver medal in team épée in Paris.