Foil, Individual, Men

The men’s individual foil consisted of five rounds of round-robin pools, with seven fencers eventually qualifying for the final pool. Nedo Nadi had won the gold medal in 1912 and 1924 but the Italians did not compete in individual foil in 1924 after they withdrew from the fencing tournament due to an incident in team foil. That seemingly left the event open for Philippe Cattiau of France, who had been the silver medalist in 1920. Cattiau raced thru the preliminary rounds, winning all 18 of his bouts before the final. In the final he won five of six bouts, but lost to his countryman, Roger Ducret, the bronze medalist from 1920, and that would decide the gold medal.

Ducret would compete in every fencing event except team sabre in Paris and won medals in all five events. He returned to the Olympics in 1928, winning a silver in team foil and ended his Olympic career with eight medals – three gold, four silver, and one bronze. Cattiau would compete in the Olympics through 1936 and end his Olympic career with the exact same set of medals as Ducret. This would be the start of Cattiau’s international results. From 1927 to 1937 he won four gold, four silver, and one bronze in the World Championships.