Foil, Individual, Women

Whenever it will be spoken in Olympic history about women’s fencing, one of the outstanding personalities was German-American defending champion Helene Mayer. She was the clear favorite for gold, with no serious rivals, having won the 1929 and 1931 World Championships. Other medal contenders were Belgian Jenny Addams, the 1930 World Champion, and Austria’s Ellen Preis. Preis had placed third at the 1932 World Championships. Of dual German/Austrian nationality, she wanted to fence for Germany in 1932, but was denied by the German federation, possibly because of her Jewish heritage (although Mayer was also Jewish).

In the preliminary round, Mayer demonstrated her superiority by winning all bouts. In the second preliminary round group the Hungarian Erna Bogen and Preis impressed the spectators.

Mayer’s boyfriend had died shortly before the Olympics began and this may have affected her in the final pool where Mayer was surprisingly upset by Addams by 5-4 hits and lost by the same score against Erna Bogen. Next, she led 4-1 against Preis, but again lost, 5-4. Preis and the British Judy Guinness ended up the best in the final group with eight wins and a fence-off was won by Preis by a score of 5-3.