Épée, Team, Men

Competing in international competition for the final time, the Soviet Union won the World Championship title in 1991. Shortly before the Barcelona Olympics the team members, now competing under the name of the Unified Team, were in dispute with their federation over unpaid bonuses due from their World title victory. Although this dispute was eventually solved it may have had an effect on their performance and they were eliminated in the semi-finals by the German team. Germany then went on to defeat Hungary to claim the gold medal. Included in the German team was Wladimir Reznitschenko, a Kazakhstan born, Estonian reared ethnic Russian who had competed as part of the Soviet team in 1988. Reznitschenko gained citizenship shortly before the Games began.