Sabre, Individual, Men

The Hungarian domination of the sabre had continued almost unchallenged since 1920 but in 1956 it was threatened by the political upheaval that engulfed the country in the last few months before the Melbourne Games. The team left for Melbourne shortly after Soviet troops entered Budapest and with fighting still going on in the streets.

Unlike Helsinki this was not a Hungarian sweep of the medals as the champions of 1948 and 1952, Aladár Gerevich and Pál Kovács respectively, faltered in the final pool. The nation’s tradition was instead upheld by Rudolf Kárpáti who was competing as an individual for the first time after winning team gold in 1948 and 1952. Kárpáti’s six victories out of seven in the pool was one more than the total achieved by Poland’s Jerzy Pawłowski who took silver. The bronze medal was won, after a barrage, by Lev Kuznetsov who became the Soviet Union’s first individual fencing medallist.

The lives of the gold and silver medallists were to go in vastly different ways. Kárpáti returned to Hungary, unlike many of his team mates, and flourished under the new government. He retained his Olympic title in 1960 then, in retirement, rose to become head of the national fencing federation.

Pawłowski, a major in the Polish Army, would win gold 12 years later in Mexico but was later revealed to be working for the CIA. After the discovery of his espionage he spent 12 years in prison.