Italo Santelli - Post-Olympics

Post-Olympics

At the 1924 Summer Olympics, Kovacs, a Hungarian judge, made a controversial call in a fencing match, siding with France over Italy. An Italian fencer, Aldo Boni, verbally attacked the judge for the ruling and refused to apologize when asked. Santelli was called in as a witness to Boni's outbreak, and the Italian team was forced to resign from the competition.

Once in Italy, the Italian team's captain, Adolfo Cotronei, accused Santelli of speaking out against Boni to remove them from the competition, supposedly fearing they would eliminate his adopted nation of Hungary, who would go on to take the bronze at the 1924 Games. Cotronei challenged Santelli, already past 60 years of age, to a duel. Giorgio Santelli, under the rules of the "code duello", took his father's place in the fight, and won the duel with a riposte to Cotronei's face. Santelli went on to coach numerous notable fencing students over the course of his career.