Sabre, Individual, Men

In 1908 and 1912 Hungary’s Jenő Fuchs had won gold in individual sabre, but in 1920 Italy’s Nedo Nadi came through for the title. That was the only interruption in Hungarian domination of this event at the Olympics, as they won every other gold medal from 1908-64. But they would be challenged in 1924 by Dutchman Arie de Jong who had won the World Championships in 1922 and 1923. De Jong made it to the final, alongside four Italians, three Hungarians, two Frenchmen, Ivan Osiier of Denmark, who competed at the Olympics from 1908-48, and Argentine Horacio Casco, who would finish, not unexpectedly, last in the final. The final pool victor was expected to come from the Hungarians, the Italians, or perhaps de Jong.

But of the 12 finalists, only eight would end up competing in what would become the final pool. The Italians were drawn against each other initially and Oreste Puliti, by far their top fencer, defeated his three countrymen easily. But the Jury of Appeal, led by Hungarian judge György Kovács, ruled that the Italians had thrown their matches to Puliti to allow him a better chance to win gold. Puliti was incensed and threatened to cane Kovács, which caused the Jury to disqualify Puliti. The other three Italians then withdrew in protest, and the final proceeded without the four Italians. The anti-climactic final was actually quite close with three fencers – Sándor Posta (HUN), Roger Ducret (FRA), and János Garay (HUN) winning five bouts and meeting in a barrage for the medals, which Posta won by defeating both Ducret and Garay. Ducret’s silver medal gave him five medals in five events (he skipped team sabre) in Paris, with three golds – team foil and épée and individual foil.

Two days after the event Puliti saw Kovács at a music hall and resumed berating him. Kovács tried to avoid a scene by telling Puliti he could not understand Italian, so Puliti struck him in the face with his fist and said that perhaps he understood that. The men were separated and a formal duel was proposed.

The two combatants met again four months later at Nagykanizsa in southwestern Hungary, near the current Serbian border. The duel lasted for an hour, at which time the two were stopped by spectators who were concerned about the many wounds the two had received. Puliti and Kovács then shook hands and honor was restored.

The IOC convened a Jury of Honor to investigate this incident, an incident in men’s foil team, and several incidents in boxing also involving bad sportsmanship. The Jury of Honor issued a report in March of 1925 banning Puliti from any further Olympic competition. Two years later, the Italian fencing federation asked for this decision to be reconsidered saying that Puliti had only been following the instructions of his team captain. Puliti was allowed to compete in the 1928 Olympics where he competed in the individual foil competition, finishing fourth, and was a member of the Italian foil team that won the gold medal and sabre team that won a silver medal.