Foil, Individual, Men

Italy and Germany were expected to do well in the foil. Italian Andrea Cassarà had won the 2011 world title, defeating compatriot Valerio Aspromonte in the final in Catania. Cassarà was also ranked first in the FIE rankings, although Aspromonte was seeded first in the Olympic tournament. Third Italian on the squad was Andrea Baldini. He had missed the 2008 Games, after it was reported he had failed a drug test. He was cleared of the accusations several months later, immediately earning the World and European titles of 2009. Germany had entered defending champion, Benjamin Kleibrink, and the four-time World Champion, Peter Joppich. Earlier in the 2012 season, Lei Sheng had earned the Asian title, while European gold was claimed by Aleksey Cheremisinov, two months before the Olympics.

The first casualties fell in the round of 32, where Kleibrink was served revenge by Yuki Ota, who had lost the 2008 Olympic final to him. Joppich suffered defeat at the hands of Alaaeldin Abouelkassem, the 2010 Junior World Champion. Abouelkassem, son of an Egyptian father and Algerian mother, had suffered his father’s death just a few months before the Olympics, but this did not stop him from upsetting also Cassarà in the quarter-finals. Lei Sheng, a three-time World Championship medallist, took care of the other two Italians, outscoring Aspromonte in the quarter-finals, and Baldini in the semis. The Chinese and the Egyptian met in the final, where Lei took a 8-5 lead in the first period. Abouelkassem recovered to lead by two points at 13-11, but then received four touches in a row to give the title to Lei. With the bronze taken by Choi Byeong-Cheol of South Korea, the entire podium was taken by non-European fencers. This had not happened since 1904, when only Cuban and American foil fencers competed.