Foil, Individual, Women

The two women who qualified for the final of the women’s foil were established stars of the sport though, for different reasons, missed out on the 1980 Games through no fault of their own.

China did not take up the invitation to compete in Moskva so Luan Jujie had to wait until the 1981 World Championships to make her mark. She had won a silver medal in 1981 then added bronze in 1983. Her final opponent was Cornelia Hanisch of West Germany, the woman who had pipped her for gold in 1981, who would have been a strong medal contender at the 1980 Olympics but for her nation’s decision to boycott. Hanisch had eliminated World Champion Dorina Vaccaroni to reach the final.

Unfortunately for the German she was not able to repeat her semi-final form against her Chinese opponent and went down to an 8-3 defeat, as Luan Jujie became the first Asian competitor to win an Olympic fencing title. She would compete for China again in 1988 but left her homeland to work mainly as a coach. She did continue to compete and her final Olympic appearance came at the age of 50 in her native country albeit whilst wearing the colours of her adopted nation of Canada, by then using the Western name of Jujie Luan.