Foil, Individual, Women

West Germany had shown a considerable depth of talent since the 1984 Olympics and had taken 5 of the 9 available medals at the intervening World Championships – each by a different fencer. It was expected that the West Germans would all be strong medal contenders but the extent of their domination came as a shock. There was little sign of German superiority in the second pool stages as all three had difficulty qualifying but once in the knockout stages they suddenly found their best form. Anja Fichtel’s victory over Zsuzsa Jánosi of Hungary in the semi-final ensured that the West Germans would take home both gold and silver and with Jánosi losing to Zita-Eva Funkenhauser in the bronze medal match the medal sweep was complete. This just left the matter of which German would be crowned Olympic champion. That honour fell to Fichtel who defeated Sabine Bau to add Olympic gold to her 1986 World title.

Back in 29th place in the classification was 52 year old Kerstin Palm of Sweden making her 7th successive Olympic appearance. Although since beaten, it was a record for any female Olympian at the time.