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Fencing at the 1980 Summer Olympics

Dates 22 – 31 July 1980
Medal Events 8

The American-led boycott of the 1980 Olympics did not affect the fencing tournament as much as many other sports but it meant that the West Germans would not compete in the Soviet capital. The Germans were strong in team events and had a reigning World champion in women’s foil star Cornelia Hanisch.

The tournament, which took place at the CSKA Sports Complex, bucked the trend both of the 1980 Games and of recent World Championships with Western Europe actually winning more titles than the Warsaw Pact countries. For the first time since 1962 in World or Olympic competition another country took more gold medals than the Soviet Union. The Soviets did win the most medals with eight but France’s strength in team competitions helped them won four gold medals, one more than the USSR.

Two fencers claimed a brace of gold medals, Russian sabre star Viktor Krovopuskov and French foilist Pascale Trinquet.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Foil, Individual, Men Olympic 22 – 23 July 1980 37 16
Foil, Team, Men Olympic 25 – 26 July 1980 42 9
Épée, Individual, Men Olympic 27 – 28 July 1980 42 16
Épée, Team, Men Olympic 30 – 31 July 1980 53 11
Sabre, Individual, Men Olympic 24 – 25 July 1980 30 12
Sabre, Team, Men Olympic 28 – 29 July 1980 39 8
Foil, Individual, Women Olympic 23 – 24 July 1980 33 14
Foil, Team, Women Olympic 26 – 27 July 1980 45 9
187 (136/51) 20 (19/14)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Foil, Individual, Men Vladimir SmirnovURS Pascal JolyotFRA Aleksandr RomankovURS
Foil, Team, Men FranceFRA Soviet UnionURS PolandPOL
Épée, Individual, Men Johan HarmenbergSWE Ernő KolczonayHUN Philippe RiboudFRA
Épée, Team, Men FranceFRA PolandPOL Soviet UnionURS
Sabre, Individual, Men Viktor KrovopuskovURS Mikhail BurtsevURS Imre GedőváriHUN
Sabre, Team, Men Soviet UnionURS ItalyITA HungaryHUN
Foil, Individual, Women Pascale TrinquetFRA Magda MarosHUN Barbara WysoczańskaPOL
Foil, Team, Women FranceFRA Soviet UnionURS HungaryHUN

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
France FRA 4 1 1 6
Soviet Union URS 3 3 2 8
Sweden SWE 1 0 0 1
Hungary HUN 0 2 3 5
Poland POL 0 1 2 3
Italy ITA 0 1 0 1