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Aladár Gerevich
Born
Sabre. Gerevich won Olympic gold at six Games from 1932 to 1960, a span no other athlete has matched in one event, seven of his golds coming in sabre. He embodied the Hungarian school of sabre: precise blade work from the wrist rather than wild slashes, and constant pressure on the opponent's distance. Watching how little wasted movement he used explains why Hungary dominated the weapon for decades.
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Ilona Elek
Born
Foil. Elek won Olympic individual foil gold in 1936 and, after the war cancelled two Games, again in 1948, then silver in 1952 aged 45. Women fenced only foil at the Olympics until 1996, and her career shows the classical foil game at its best: patient preparation, tight parries and a counterattack timed to win the right of way. Her longevity across a 16-year gap is extraordinary.
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Edoardo Mangiarotti
Foil and épée. Mangiarotti won 13 Olympic medals, six of them gold, across both weapons between 1936 and 1960, still the most by any fencer. Naturally right-handed, he was trained by his father to fence left-handed, because left-handers' attacks come from an angle most opponents rarely face. His career is the best illustration of how one fencer can adapt between foil's right-of-way rules and épée's whole-body, first-to-hit game.
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Christian d'Oriola
Foil. D'Oriola won Olympic individual foil gold in 1952 and 1956 and four world titles, and he is often held up as the purest exponent of the French school: light, precise finger control of the blade and elegant footwork rather than force. Electric scoring arrived in foil in the mid-1950s, and his ability to win before and after it shows how much his game rested on technique rather than the judges' eyes.
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Stanislav Pozdnyakov
Sabre. Electric scoring came to sabre only in 1988, and Pozdnyakov was the first great champion of the faster game that followed: explosive, attacking and built on winning the start of each phrase. He won individual Olympic gold in Atlanta 1996, four Olympic team golds and multiple world titles. His bouts show why modern sabre is decided in fractions of a second off the line.
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Pavel Kolobkov
Born
Épée. Kolobkov won Olympic épée gold at Sydney 2000 and world titles spread across more than a decade, and his game is the clearest lesson in how épée works. With the whole body as target and no right of way, he waited, controlled distance and struck the forearm or foot the instant an opponent committed. Watch him and you understand why épée bouts can look slow and then end in a flash.
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Laura Flessel-Colovic
Born
Épée. Women's épée joined the Olympics only in 1996, and Flessel, nicknamed "the Wasp", won its first individual title in Atlanta along with team gold. Her quick, stinging attacks to the arm and willingness to fence at very close range contrasted with Kolobkov's patience, showing that épée rewards both styles. She won five Olympic medals in all and later became France's sports minister.
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Valentina Vezzali
Born
Foil. Vezzali won individual foil gold at three consecutive Olympics, Sydney, Athens and Beijing, plus team golds, and 16 world titles. Left-handed and tactically ruthless, she was a master of the counterattack and of manipulating right of way, drawing an opponent's attack and then taking the priority back. Her bouts are the best place to learn how foil referees decide who scored when both lights go on.
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Mariel Zagunis
Sabre. Women's sabre debuted at the Olympics in Athens 2004, and Zagunis won it, then won again in Beijing, the first American fencing gold in a century. Tall and long-armed, she used reach and a quick, direct attack to dominate the early years of a weapon that suited aggressive athletes. Her success did more than anyone's to make sabre a serious American sport.
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Áron Szilágyi
Sabre. Szilágyi won individual sabre gold at London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, the first fencer to win three consecutive Olympic individual sabre titles. His style mixes the Hungarian tradition of precise blade work with the modern game's speed, and he is especially good at defending with a parry and riposte in a weapon where most points come from the attack. A good fencer to watch to see sabre's tactics beyond pure speed.
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Olga Kharlan
Sabre. Kharlan is one of the most decorated sabre fencers ever, with multiple world individual titles and Olympic medals across four Games, including individual bronze and team gold for Ukraine at Paris 2024. In 2023 she was disqualified at the world championships for declining to shake hands with a Russian opponent, and the IOC then guaranteed her a place in Paris. On the piste, her fast footwork and sharp counter-attacks are a model of the modern women's sabre game.
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Miles Chamley-Watson
Foil. Chamley-Watson, the 2013 world foil champion, has a hit named after him: the "Chamley-Watson", in which he wraps his arm around his own back or over his shoulder to land the point on an opponent's back. Foil's small torso target makes angled hits like this valuable, and his move is a vivid example of how fencers find new ways to reach the valid target. He also won Olympic team bronze at Rio 2016.
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Cheung Ka Long
Foil. Cheung won Hong Kong's first Olympic fencing gold at Tokyo 2020, beating defending champion Daniele Garozzo, and defended the title at Paris 2024 in a tight final. His game is built on speed off the line and very short, sharp attacks, and he shows how the modern foil game rewards fencers who win the right of way through explosive preparation rather than long, set-piece phrases.
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Lee Kiefer
Foil. Kiefer won the US its first individual Olympic foil gold at Tokyo 2020 and defended it at Paris 2024, adding team gold there, all while training as a doctor. A left-hander like Vezzali, she wins with fine point control and patient set-ups that draw an opponent into attacking first, then takes the right of way back. Her bouts show the thinking side of modern foil.
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Koki Kano
Born
Épée. Kano won team épée gold with Japan at Tokyo 2020 and then individual gold at Paris 2024, Japan's first individual Olympic fencing title. Smaller than many épée rivals, he relies on footwork, timing and counter-attacks to the hand and arm rather than reach. His win is a good counterpoint to the idea that épée favours tall fencers, and a sign of Japan's rapid rise in the sport.
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Beatrice Vio
Wheelchair foil. In wheelchair fencing the chairs are fixed to a frame at a set distance, so there is no footwork: everything comes from the torso, arm and blade, and fencers are split into categories A and B by trunk function. Vio, a quadruple amputee who fences in category B with a prosthetic arm attachment, won Paralympic individual foil gold at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. Her bouts show foil's right-of-way battles in their purest, closest-range form.
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