Fencing at The 1924 Summer Olympics

Fencing At The 1924 Summer Olympics

At the 1924 Summer Olympics, seven fencing events were contested. A women's event, the individual foil, was held for the first time.

After the Olympic Games, an Italian and a Hungarian settled a scoring controversy with a real duel. Aldolfo Contronei, either a 45-year old fencing critic for an Italian newspaper or the captain of the Italian foil team depending on sources, fought Giorgio Santelli, the 27-year old son of Italo Santelli who coached the Hungarian Olympic team. Giorgio Santelli had invoked the Code Duello in order to fight in the place of his 60-year old father. The duel was fought in the town of Abazzia near the Hungarian border with heavy sabers. The duel was terminated after only two minutes of combat time when Santelli must have landed a tierce of quarte in the side of Contronei's forehead.

A further duel resulted when Gyorgy Kovacs, a Hungarian judge at the Games also involved in the causes of the earlier duel, fought one of the Italian team, Oreste Puliti, four months after the Games over allegations made by Kovacs and other judges.