Yves Dreyfus

Over the course of his lengthy épée fencing career, Yves Dreyfus captured over a dozen major international fencing medals. Of Jewish ancestry, he survived the Nazi occupation of France by taking the name of Yves Doucet and took up fencing after the war. His first major podium finish came at the 1954 World Championships, where he took home bronze, the first of nine medals from that tournament. Individually he took bronze in 1962 and silver in 1963, while with the team he captured gold in 1962, 1965, and 1966 and silver in 1961, 1963, and 1967. During this time he attended three editions of the Olympics, taking bronze with the team in 1956 and 1964 and being defeated in round two in 1960. Individually, he was sixth in 1960 and was eliminated in the quarterfinals in 1964. He was also Mediterranean Games champion in 1963 and took individual titles at the Maccabiah Games in 1961 and 1965, in addition to team victories in 1973 and 1977 and an individual silver in 1957. In his later years, he published three books on fencing.