Jean Link

When Link was about 10 years old, there was a sports hall near where the family lived that taught boxing, judo, and fencing. Jean wanted to box but his mother threatened to divorce his father if that happened and so he started fencing instead. In 1953, at the age of 14, he competed in his first Junior World Championships, which at the time was for fencers under the age of 21, and made the top 16 in a field of 63 fencers. He made the top 16 the following two years also. In 1956 the Junior Worlds were held in Luxembourg and he placed fifth and the following year he was in the top 12.

In 1958, competing in his sixth Junior World Championship, he was gold medalist. In 1959, after he had won the Junior World Championship for the second consecutive year, he was named the Luxembourg Sportsman of the Year by the Luxembourg Association of Sports Journalists, beating out the cyclist Charly Gaul who had won the Giro d’Italia that year.

After competing in the 1960 Olympics and being disappointed by being eliminated in the second round and then being eliminated in the first round of the Senior Worlds in 1963, he stopped fencing to concentrate on the family business. He stayed active playing tennis and skiing but after, hearing that a Veteran Fencing World Championships were going to be held starting in 1998, he returned to competitive fencing. At the 1999 Veteran Worlds he placed third in foil and first in epee in the 60-69 age group and in 2002 second in the foil. His father Prosper Link was president of the Comité Olympique Luxembourgeois from 1970 to 1972.