Épée, Individual, Men

The men’s épée produced a spree of upsets in the early stages of the competition. World champion Krisztian Kulcsar of Hungary was the first to fall, followed swiftly by defending Olympic champion Jérôme Jeannet of France and world #1 Silvio Fernández of Venezuela.

Those who survived the cull of top rated fencers to reach the Olympic final were former World Champion Fabrice Jeannet, younger brother of Jérôme, and Italy’s Matteo Tagliariol who had won the silver medal at the 2007 European Championship. Tagliariol was victorious in Beijing and revived the Italian tradition of Olympic success in the event that had been dormant since Giuseppe Delfino won Italy’s sixth successive title in front of his home crowd in 1960.

The charismatic Tagliarol, who was inspired to fence by Alexandre Dumas’ novel The Three Musketeers, became a popular media celebrity in his home country following his victory even as the standard of his performances dipped following the Beijing Olympics. He failed to gain a place on the Italian team for the London Olympics.