Pietro Speciale

Pietro Speciale was a lawyer and the first athlete from Sicily who actually participated in the Olympic Games. He appears in the records as a fencer in the 1890s. Initially, he preferred the épée but also fought with the other weapons. After the turn of the century, he established himself as one of the best amateur fencers in Italy. With the épée, Speciale won a tournament in Palermo in 1906 and made his debut for the national team in the same year in a match against France. He won the épée event at the tournament of “Societa del Giardino” in Milano and was subsequently selected for the 1908 Olympics in London, where he was eliminated in round two of the individual épée event. After three years without many competitions and occupied by his duties as a lawyer, he returned to qualify for the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, this time with the foil. After a difficult first round, he sailed through the quarter- and semi-finals without losing a single bout. In the final round, Speciale only lost to his two countrymen including the eventual gold medallist Nedo Nadi beating all five non-Italians.

Before World War I, he only had one major tournament, the “Bregnat Cup” foil event in Monte Carlo in 1914, which Italy won despite of Speciale’s poor showing. Despite being already 43-years-old, Speciale was included in the team by the undisputed sovereign in Italian fencing, Nedo Nadi, to make third Olympic appearance in 1920 in Antwerpen (Antwerp). The first fencing event was the foil team tournament, where Italy won all three of its matches in round one. In the final round the match against France was narrowly won by Italy. The other finalists, the United States, Denmark, and Great Britain, were defeated with ease with Speciale being only deployed against the USA. In the individual foil event, Speciale made it into the final round but only placed 12th and last, probably paying tribute to his age. However, after 10 consecutive defeats he faced Frenchman [Roger Ducret], who was on a roll for the gold. But an energized Speciale defeated Ducret and thus presenting Nedo Nadi with gold and pushing Ducret to bronze.

Speciale never won an Italian championship, which were, however, not contested in seven years (1912-13, 1915-19) during his career.