Épée, Individual, Men

Although Gino Cantone had performed well in the team competition, he was not chosen for the decisive match against France and, as he was not chosen for the individual event, it seemed he would have to settle for an Olympic silver to add to the team bronze he had won at the 1947 World Championships. Fate then intervened as teammate Dario Mangiarotti sustained a foot injury and Cantone was chosen to replace him. Cantone qualified for the final pool easily enough although he was by no means the most impressive of the qualifiers and went on to lose to the two Italian compatriots early in the decisive phase but then something strange happened. As Cantone notched up victories, the rest failed to take advantage of his early defeats and no one else could post better than a 5-4 win loss record. Since he was no more than the 4th or 5th ranked of the Italian fencers, his victory was clearly unexpected as was the silver medal gained by Oswald Zappelli of Switzerland.