Fencing at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Dates 20 – 30 September 1988
Medal Events 8

After the boycott years of 1980 and 1984 the fencing tournament was nearly back to full strength in 1988. The one major nation who did not show at the Olympic Fencing Gymnasium in Seoul was Cuba, who were amongst the strongest nations in men’s épée. West Germany, aided by their all-conquering women’s team topped the medal table under either definition with three golds and seven total medals. Anja Fichtel was the only double gold medallist of the Games whilst Jean-François Lamour of France became the first man to defend an individual title since 1960 when he retained his sabre gold medal. The Seoul Olympics saw the final appearance of Sweden’s Kerstin Palm. Palm’s career concluded her seventh Olympic Games which was a record for a female Olympian at the time.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Foil, Individual, Men Olympic 20 – 21 September 1988 68 29
Foil, Team, Men Olympic 26 – 27 September 1988 76 16
Épée, Individual, Men Olympic 23 – 24 September 1988 79 33
Épée, Team, Men Olympic 29 – 30 September 1988 85 18
Sabre, Individual, Men Olympic 22 – 23 September 1988 40 18
Sabre, Team, Men Olympic 28 – 29 September 1988 53 11
Foil, Individual, Women Olympic 21 – 22 September 1988 45 19
Foil, Team, Women Olympic 27 – 28 September 1988 60 12
317 (248/69) 42 (40/19)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Foil, Individual, Men Stefano CerioniITA Udo WagnerGDR Aleksandr RomankovURS
Foil, Team, Men Soviet UnionURS West GermanyFRG HungaryHUN
Épée, Individual, Men Arnd SchmittFRG Philippe RiboudFRA Andrey ShuvalovURS
Épée, Team, Men FranceFRA West GermanyFRG Soviet UnionURS
Sabre, Individual, Men Jean-François LamourFRA Janusz OlechPOL Giovanni ScalzoITA
Sabre, Team, Men HungaryHUN Soviet UnionURS ItalyITA
Foil, Individual, Women Anja FichtelFRG Sabine BauFRG Zita FunkenhauserFRG
Foil, Team, Women West GermanyFRG ItalyITA HungaryHUN

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
West Germany FRG 3 3 1 7
France FRA 2 1 0 3
Soviet Union URS 1 1 3 5
Italy ITA 1 1 2 4
Hungary HUN 1 0 2 3
East Germany GDR 0 1 0 1
Poland POL 0 1 0 1