Sabre, Individual, Men

Sabre bouts were for one touch as was customary in France at that time but a second sabre event using three touches was then added on May 1 to please the sabre fencers from other countries where three-touch sabre bouts were customary. Unlike foil and épée, no time limit was specified. The target area was reduced slightly from what was used at the 1896 Olympics. Instead of the entire body being valid target area, touches “below the knee” were no longer valid.

Because there were no international regulations as to what constituted a “sabre”, the Organizing Committee allowed every fencer to use the type of sabre in use in his own country. The length of the blades, however, had to be between 82 and 91 centimeters and the weight of the weapon between 450 and 950 grams. The committee “reserved to themselves the right to prohibit any weapons whose use they thought would be dangerous”.

The sabre competition resulted in a popular victory for the Greek fencer, Ioannis Georgiadis. As in the épée, there were 29 competitors originally. Six elimination pools narrowed the field to 13 semi-finalists who fought two pools to determine the six finalists. In the finals, a three-way tie occurred for first place between Georgiadis, Gustav Casmir, and Federico Cesarano. In a fence-off between the three, Georgiadis won with Casmir second and Cesarano third.

One competitor from 1906, Hendrik van Blijenburgh, described this event as follows, “As to what happened in the sabre events, that entirely belongs into the world of humour. It did not matter who did what, or how he did it - but if someone touched his opponent, he lost! I highly respected the Greek fencers, but that the Greek jury should ‘appoint’ Georgiadis as the winner, that was a bit too much.”