Sabre, Individual, Men

The sabre had long been a stronghold of Hungarian fencing but in 1952 they achieved a level of peak dominance that they had only achieved once before when they placed seven of their men in the top eight back in 1912. Their second ever medal sweep in the event was led by 40-year-old [Pál Kovács[(), the World Champion from 1937, who remained unbeatable throughout the duration of the event. Kovács achieved the rare distinction of having won 19 out of 19 bouts during the competition.

The 1948 champion, Aladár Gerevich, lost to Kovács, which was his only defeat in the final stage consigned him to the silver medal position with a third Hungarian, Tibor Berczelly, winning a barrage to claim the bronze medal and seal the Hungarian sweep. The three Hungarians would win a combined total of 16 Olympic titles in careers that were interrupted by the Second World War.

In the pools, if two or more fencers had the same number of victories and the tie had to be broken to determine which fencer(s) qualified for the next round or to determine the gold medalist in the final round, then barrage bouts were fenced to resolve the tie. In all other cases, ties were resolved by whichever fencers had the fewest number of touches received or, if there was a tie in touches received, then by the greatest number of touches given. The number of touches scored in the barrage bouts is not known.