Épée, Individual, Men

France’s Géo Buchard was the 1927 World champion, but was expected to be challenged by his countryman Lucien Gaudin, who had already won the individual foil in Amsterdam, and had been the first World champion, in 1921. Both made it easily to the final, where Gaudin defeated Buchard twice, both in the final pool, and in the medal pool barrage, earning him the gold medal. This made Gaudin one of only two Olympians, with Ramón Fonst (CUB) in 1904, to win both the individual foil and épée at the same Olympics. Buchard competed in 1932 and 1936, winning another silver medal in this event at Los Angeles, to go with team épée gold medals in 1924 and 1932.

The bronze medal went to the United States’ George Calnan, a major upset in this era, when American fencers were not usually competitive internationally. A career Naval officer, Calnan competed again in 1932, winning two team bronze medals. He died only a year later, in the crash of the airship USS Akron.

The format of this event was very unusual and has not been used in any other Olympics. The first two rounds used the format that was customary at that time, with large pools of fencers fencing one-touch bouts. If the two fencers touched each other simultaneously, they were both credited with a loss. The third round (called the semi-finals) had two pools of nine fencers, with the top five finishers from each pool advancing to the next round, but the bouts were for two touches. The next round was one pool of ten fencers fencing for two touches and was called a “Final Round”, but then there was an additional round in which the top four fencers from the “Final Round” fenced in a direct-elimination Medal Round that they called an “Extra-Final.” The bouts in the Medal Round were for 10 touches, but you had to win by two touches and, so, the Buchard-Calnan bout did not end until the score was 13-11. The first seed from the Final Round, Gaudin, fenced the fourth seed, Léon Tom, in one bout, while the second and third seeds out of the final, Buchard and Calnan, fenced the other. Then, the winners of those two bouts (Gaudin and Buchard) fenced for gold, and the losers (Calnan and Tom) fenced for bronze.