Épée, Individual, Men

Swiss fencers had been competing at the Olympic Games since the Paris Olympics of 1900 but, in all those years, had never produced an Olympic champion in the sport. Prior to 2004 Marcel Fischer’s greatest achievements had been a brace of victories in the 2003 World Cup and a fourth place finish at the Sydney Olympics but the Swiss #1 had a smooth progression through to the final where he faced another trailblazer in the shape of Wang Lei, the first Chinese male ever to reach an Olympic final. Lei had defeated 2002 World Champion Pavel Kolobkov of Russia to reach the gold medal match. The Chinese fencer was not able to repeat his semi-final form against Fischer and the native of Biel/Bienne won a historic victory for Switzerland. For his achievement Fischer was named as Switzerland’s Sportsman of the Year in 2004.