Nick Thuillier

The older brother of the 1952 and 1960 Olympic fencer Harry, Nick Thuillier was a foil and sabre exponent and was a member of the first Irish fencing team to compete at the Olympics, in 1948. Nick won the 1944 South of Ireland Open Sabre Championship, and despite failing to retain his title in 1945 was runner-up to Owen Tuohy in the foil championship. In 1946, when he was president of the Irish Fencing Federation, Thuillier captured the national foil title, and his wife “Freddie” was the women’s champion that same year. She went on to win the national foil title several times in the late-40s and early-50s.

When Nick regained the national foil title in 1948 it meant he went to the Olympics as the reigning national champion, but he won just one of his seven bouts in London and was eliminated in the first round. When he regained his Irish title in 1950, he did so at the expense of his brother Harry in a fight-off.