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| Event type

Foil, Individual, Women

Date26 – 27 July 1952
StatusOlympic
LocationWestendin tennishalli, Espoo
Participants37 from 15 countries

World and Olympic champion Ilona Elek-Schacherer cruised through the early stages by winning all 15 of her bouts and appeared pretty much invincible. However she lost twice in a final pool stage that proved so close that six of the ten finalists were involved in barrages to decide the medal winners. Elek-Schacherer’s record was still good enough to place her in the gold medal match against the lightly regarded outsider Irene Camber-Corno of Italy. It came as a major shock that the Italian defeated the veteran Hungarian to clinch the Olympic title on a 4-3 score line. The four woman tie-break for the bronze medal was won by Karen Lachmann of Denmark. Camber-Corno won the 1953 World Championship but was unable to defend her Olympic title in Melbourne due to pregnancy. She returned in 1960 to add a team bronze medal to her gold and also competed in Tokyo.

In the pools, if two or more fencers had the same number of victories and the tie had to be broken to determine which fencer(s) qualified for the next round or to determine the gold medalist in the final round, then barrage bouts were fenced to resolve the tie. In all other cases, ties were resolved by whichever fencers had the fewest number of touches received or, if there was a tie in touches received, then by the greatest number of touches given. The number of touches scored in the barrage bouts is not known.

PosCompetitor(s)NOC
1Irene Camber-CornoITAGold
2Ilona ElekHUNSilver
3Karen LachmannDENBronze
4Jan YorkUSA
5Maxine MitchellUSA
6Renée GarilheFRA
7Lylian Lecomte-GuyonneauFRA
8Magda Nyári-KovácsHUN
5 p1 r3/4Silvia StrukelITA
5 p2 r3/4Mary Glen-HaigGBR
6 p1 r3/4Ellen Müller-PreisAUT
6 p2 r3/4Lilo AllgayerGER
7 p1 r3/4Polly CrausUSA
7 p2 r3/4Fritzi FilzAUT
8 p1 r3/4Grete KunzAUT
8 p2 r3/4Appolinariya PlekhanovaURS
5 p1 r2/4Nadezhda ShitikovaURS
5 p2 r2/4Odette DrandFRA
5 p3 r2/4Margit ElekHUN
5 p4 r2/4Irena NawrockaPOL
6 p1 r2/4Gillian SheenGBR
6 p2 r2/4Patricia BullerGBR
6 p3 r2/4Anna PonomaryovaURS
6 p4 r2/4Elsa IrigoyenARG
5 p1 r1/4Velleda CesariITA
5 p2 r1/4Maggie KalkaFIN
5 p3 r1/4Ulla PoulsenDEN
5 p4 r1/4Hedwig RiederSUI
5 p5 r1/4Catherine PymAUS
=5 p6 r1/4Marianne SjöblomFIN
=5 p6 r1/4Gerda MullerVEN
6 p1 r1/4Maria SołtanPOL
6 p2 r1/4Úrsula SelleVEN
6 p3 r1/4Patricia NorfordAUS
6 p4 r1/4Kate MahautDEN
6 p5 r1/4Taimi MattssonFIN
7 p2 r1/4Wanda WłodarczykPOL
DNSBRA1

Round One (26 July 1952 — 8:00)

Top four finishers in each pool advanced to quarter-finals.

Pool 1

PosCompetitor(s)NOCBouts WonBouts LostTDTR
1Lilo AllgayerGER5010Q
2Margit ElekHUN3214Q
=3Renée GarilheFRA231615Q
=3Gillian SheenGBR231315Q
5Velleda CesariITA231315
6Maria SołtanPOL1417

Pool 2

PosCompetitor(s)NOCBouts WonBouts LostTR
1Karen LachmannDEN418Q
2Irene Camber-CornoITA419Q
3Patricia BullerGBR3317Q
4Nadezhda ShitikovaURS3318Q
5Maggie KalkaFIN3318
6Úrsula SelleVEN2424
7Wanda WłodarczykPOL1521

Pool 3

PosCompetitor(s)NOCBouts WonBouts LostTDTR
1Grete KunzAUT411911Q
2Anna PonomaryovaURS411811Q
3Magda Nyári-KovácsHUN3211Q
4Maxine MitchellUSA2315Q
5Ulla PoulsenDEN2316
6Patricia NorfordAUS0520

Pool 4

PosCompetitor(s)NOCBouts WonBouts LostTR
1Irena NawrockaPOL317Q
2Silvia StrukelITA3211Q
3Mary Glen-HaigGBR3213Q
4Polly CrausUSA3214Q
5Hedwig RiederSUI1314
6Kate MahautDEN1417

Pool 5

PosCompetitor(s)NOCBouts WonBouts LostTR
1Jan YorkUSA405Q
=2Lylian Lecomte-GuyonneauFRA3212Q
=2Ellen Müller-PreisAUT317Q
4Appolinariya PlekhanovaURS2212Q
5Catherine PymAUS1416
6Taimi MattssonFIN0416
DNSBRA2

Pool 6

PosCompetitor(s)NOCBouts WonBouts LostTR
1Ilona ElekHUN403Q
2Odette DrandFRA316Q
3Elsa IrigoyenARG3212Q
4Fritzi FilzAUT3213Q
=5Marianne SjöblomFIN0416
=5Gerda MullerVEN0416

Quarter-Finals (26 July 1952 — 15:00)

Top four finishers in each pool advanced to semi-finals.

Pool 1

PosCompetitor(s)NOCBouts WonBouts LostTR
1Ilona ElekHUN508Q
2Irene Camber-CornoITA419Q
3Polly CrausUSA2317Q
4Grete KunzAUT2318Q
5Nadezhda ShitikovaURS1418
6Gillian SheenGBR1418

Pool 2

PosCompetitor(s)NOCBouts WonBouts LostTR
1Appolinariya PlekhanovaURS509Q
2Magda Nyári-KovácsHUN319Q
3Lilo AllgayerGER3111Q
4Silvia StrukelITA2316Q
5Odette DrandFRA1419
6Patricia BullerGBR0520

Pool 3

PosCompetitor(s)NOCBouts WonBouts LostTR
1Karen LachmannDEN4111Q
2Maxine MitchellUSA3212Q
3Fritzi FilzAUT2318Q
4Lylian Lecomte-GuyonneauFRA2316Q
5Margit ElekHUN2313
6Anna PonomaryovaURS2316

Pool 4

PosCompetitor(s)NOCBouts WonBouts LostTR
=1Jan YorkUSA4112Q
=1Renée GarilheFRA3110Q
3Ellen Müller-PreisAUT3216Q
4Mary Glen-HaigGBR2317Q
5Irena NawrockaPOL2318
6Elsa IrigoyenARG0416

Semi-Finals (27 July 1952 — 8:00)

Top four finishers in each pool advanced to final.

Pool 1

PosCompetitor(s)NOCBouts WonBouts LostTR
1Karen LachmannDEN709Q
2Lylian Lecomte-GuyonneauFRA5218Q
3Jan YorkUSA4319Q
4Magda Nyári-KovácsHUN4321Q
5Silvia StrukelITA3419
6Ellen Müller-PreisAUT3420
7Polly CrausUSA1625
8Grete KunzAUT1627

Pool 2

PosCompetitor(s)NOCBouts WonBouts LostTR
1Ilona ElekHUN606Q
=2Maxine MitchellUSA519Q
=2Renée GarilheFRA5219Q
4Irene Camber-CornoITA4318Q
5Mary Glen-HaigGBR2420
6Lilo AllgayerGER2524
7Fritzi FilzAUT1520
8Appolinariya PlekhanovaURS1627

Final Pool (27 July 1952 — 15:00)

PosCompetitor(s)NOCBouts WonBouts LostTR
1Irene Camber-CornoITA5222
2Ilona ElekHUN5221
3Karen LachmannDEN4322
4Jan YorkUSA4325
5Maxine MitchellUSA4323
6Renée GarilheFRA4324
7Lylian Lecomte-GuyonneauFRA1630
8Magda Nyári-KovácsHUN1632