Fencing at the 1904 Summer Olympics – Men's foil

Men's foil at the Games of the III Olympiad
Ramón Fonst
Venue	Francis Gymnasium, Washington University in St. Louis
Date	September 7
Competitors	9 from 3 nations
Medalists
Ramón Fonst  Cuba Albertson Van Zo Post  Cuba Charles Tatham  Cuba
← 1900 1912 →

Fencing at the 1904 Summer Olympics
Foil	men
Team foil	men
Épée	men
Sabre	men
Singlestick	men
v t

The men's foil was a fencing event held as part of the fencing at the 1904 Summer Olympics programme. It was the third time the event was held at the Olympics. The competition was held on September 7, 1904. Nine fencers from three nations competed. The medals were swept by "Cuban" fencers; only Fonst was actually Cuban, but the other two men (Albertson Van Zo Post and Charles Tatham) are marked as Cuban by the IOC despite being American.

Background[]

This was the third appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1908 (when there was a foil display only rather than a medal event). None of the fencers from 1900 returned.^[1]

Two of the three competing nations were making their debut in the men's foil: Cuba and Germany. Only the United States had previously competed, in 1900; the United States' two appearances matched France (1896 and 1900).

Competition format[]

The event used a two-round format (semifinals and a final). The semifinal consisted of two pools, one of five fencers and one of four fencers, with each pool playing a round-robin. The top two in each semifinal advanced to the final; these four played another round-robin. Standard foil rules were used, including that touches had to be made with the tip of the foil, the target area was limited to the torso, and priority determined the winner of double touches.

However, the number of touches made was not determinative of the winner of a bout. Instead, each bout was evaluated by judges. Each judge assigned up to 100 points to each fencer, with the fencer having the higher average score winning the bout.^[1]

Schedule[]

Results[]

Semifinals[]

Each fencer in a group faced each other fencer in that group once. The top two fencers in each semifinal group moved on to the final.

Semifinal A[]

Rank	Fencer	Nation	Wins	Losses	Notes
1	Ramón Fonst	Cuba	4	0	Q
2	Albertson Van Zo Post	Cuba[2]	3	1	Q
3	Fitzhugh Townsend	United States	2	2
4	Theodore Carstens	United States	1	3
5	William Grebe	United States	0	4

Semifinal B[]

Rank	Fencer	Nation	Wins	Losses	Notes
1	Gustav Casmir	Germany	3	0	Q
2	Charles Tatham	Cuba[3]	2	1	Q
3	Wilfred Holroyd	United States[4]	1	2
4	Arthur Fox	United States	0	3

Final[]

Fonst continued to defeat all comers, including Post a second time, to win the gold. Post's only two losses in the event came against Fonst, as he took silver. Tatham, who had lost to Casmir in the semifinal pool, defeated him the second time around to take third place.

Rank	Fencer	Nation	Wins	Losses
	Ramón Fonst	Cuba	3	0
	Albertson Van Zo Post	Cuba[2]	2	1
	Charles Tatham	Cuba[3]	1	2
4	Gustav Casmir	Germany	0	3

Final classification[]

Rank	Fencer	Nation	Notes
	Ramón Fonst	Cuba	Final
	Albertson Van Zo Post	Cuba[2]	Final
	Charles Tatham	Cuba[3]	Final
4	Gustav Casmir	Germany	Final
5	Fitzhugh Townsend	United States	3rd in semifinal pool
	Wilfred Holroyd	United States[4]	3rd in semifinal pool
7	Theodore Carstens	United States	4th in semifinal pool
	Arthur Fox	United States	4th in semifinal pool
9	William Grebe	United States	5th in semifinal pool

Notes[]

Sources[]

• Wudarski, Pawel (1999). "Wyniki Igrzysk Olimpijskich" (in Polish). Archived from the original on 16 February 2009. Retrieved 17 December 2006.