Fencing at the 1960 Summer Olympics

Dates 29 August – 10 September 1960
Medal Events 8

The venue for the 1960 Summer Olympics was the Palazzo dei Congressi in central Rome, a building designed for the 1942 Universal Exposition but, due to World War II, not completed until 1953. For the first time there were two events for women as a team event was added in the foil discipline.

The Rome Games saw a change in the balance of power in Olympic fencing. Since 1924 every Olympic men’s title had been claimed by fencers from one of the triopoly of France, Italy and Hungary. In the 1950s the rise of the Soviet Union, especially in the foil events, changed the face of the sport and their success in the Italian capital was no great shock. The épée and sabre were, in contrast, a last hoorah for the old guard in Italian and Hungarian fencing. Aladár Gerevich created a piece of history by winning a gold medal in the team sabre for the sixth successive title. A unique achievement in all Olympic sports made more impressive by the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Olympics when he should have been at his physical peak. His teammates Pál Kovács and Rudolf Kárpáti also ended their Olympic careers – both retired with six Olympic gold medals. It was a disastrous Games for France as, for the first Olympics in which they had participated; they were shut out of the medals.

The Soviets topped the medal table as the only nation to win three gold medals ahead of Italy and Hungary with two apiece. The winners of the three men’s individual events also won a second gold in the team event.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Foil, Individual, Men Olympic 29 – 30 August 1960 78 31
Foil, Team, Men Olympic 2 September 1960 77 16
Épée, Individual, Men Olympic 5 – 6 September 1960 79 32
Épée, Team, Men Olympic 9 September 1960 105 21
Sabre, Individual, Men Olympic 7 – 8 September 1960 70 29
Sabre, Team, Men Olympic 10 September 1960 79 16
Foil, Individual, Women Olympic 31 August – 1 September 1960 56 24
Foil, Team, Women Olympic 3 September 1960 57 12
344 (266/78) 42 (41/24)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Foil, Individual, Men Viktor ZhdanovichURS Yury SisikinURS Albie AxelrodUSA
Foil, Team, Men Soviet UnionURS ItalyITA Unified Team of GermanyGER
Épée, Individual, Men Giuseppe DelfinoITA Allan JayGBR Bruno HabārovsURS
Épée, Team, Men ItalyITA Great BritainGBR Soviet UnionURS
Sabre, Individual, Men Rudolf KárpátiHUN Zoltán HorváthHUN Wladimiro CalareseITA
Sabre, Team, Men HungaryHUN PolandPOL ItalyITA
Foil, Individual, Women Heidi SchmidGER Valentina RastvorovaURS Maria VicolROU
Foil, Team, Women Soviet UnionURS HungaryHUN ItalyITA

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
Soviet Union URS 3 2 2 7
Hungary HUN 2 2 0 4
Italy ITA 2 1 3 6
Germany GER 1 0 1 2
Great Britain GBR 0 2 0 2
Poland POL 0 1 0 1
Romania ROU 0 0 1 1
United States USA 0 0 1 1