The men's team épée was one of seven fencing events on the fencing at the 1948 Summer Olympics programme. It was the eighth appearance of the event. The competition was held from 5 August 1948 to 6 August 1948. 113 fencers from 21 nations competed.
The competition format continued the pool play round-robin from prior years. Each of the four fencers from one team would face each of the four from the other, for a total of 16 bouts per match. Bouts were to three touches. The team that won more bouts won the match, with competition potentially stopping when one team reached 9 points out of the possible 16 (this did not always occur and matches sometimes continued). If the bouts were 8–8, touches received was used to determine the winning team. (Because double-loss bouts were possible, these victory conditions were adjusted where necessary.) Pool matches unnecessary to the result were not played.Official Report, p. 360.
Rosters
Argentina Vito Simonetti Antonio Villamil Raúl Saucedo Floro Díaz Jorge Balza Adolfo Guido Lavalle
Belgium Raymond Stasse Léopold Hauben Raymond Bru Jean-Marie Radoux Raoul Henkart Charles Debeur
Brazil Mario Biancalana Fortunato de Barros Henrique de Aguilar Walter de Paula Salvatore Scianamea
Canada Robert Desjarlais Alf Horn Roland Asselin Georges Pouliot
Cuba Roberto Mañalich Carlos Lamar Armando Barrientos Juan Antonio Martínez
Denmark Mogens Lüchow Erik Andersen Ib Nielsen René Dybkær Jakob Lyng Kenneth Flindt
Egypt Salah Dessouki Jean Asfar Mahmoud Younes Mohamed Abdel Rahman Osman Abdel Hafeez
Finland Nils Sjöblom Olavi Larkas Erkki Kerttula Ilmari Vartia Kauko Jalkanen
France Henri Guérin Henri Lepage Marcel Desprets Michel Pécheux Édouard Artigas Maurice Huet
Great Britain Charles de Beaumont Terry Beddard Ronald Parfitt Archibald Craig Michael McCready Bert Pelling
Greece Athanasios Nanopoulos Andreas Skotidas Stefanos Zintzos Konstantinos Bembis Ioannis Karamazakis
Hungary Imre Hennyei Pál Dunay Béla Rerrich Béla Mikla Lajos Balthazár Béla Bay
Italy Edoardo Mangiarotti Carlo Agostoni Dario Mangiarotti Gino Cantone Marco Antonio Mandruzzato Fiorenzo Marini
Luxembourg Jean-Fernand Leischen Paul Anen Émile Gretsch Gust Lamesch Erny Putz
Mexico Emilio Meraz Francisco Valero Benito Ramos Antonio Haro
Norway Johan von Koss Egill Knutzen Alfred Eriksen Claus Mørch Sr. Sverre Gillebo
Poland Antoni Sobik Rajmund Karwicki Jan Nawrocki Teodor Zaczyk Bolesław Banaś
Portugal Manuel Chagas José de Castro Emílio Lino Álvaro Pinto João Costa Carlos Dias
Sweden Sven Thofelt Per Carleson Frank Cervell Carl Forssell Bengt Ljungquist Arne Tollbom
Switzerland Fernand Thiébaud Robert Lips Jean Hauert Oswald Zappelli Otto Rüfenacht Marc Chamay
United States Norman Lewis Andrew Boyd Joe de Capriles Donald Thompson Albert Wolff Ralph Goldstein
Results
Round 1
The top two teams in each pool advanced to round 2.
Pool 1
Argentina beat Poland 10–6, Poland beat Cuba 8–6, and Argentina beat Cuba 9–5.
Rank Nation Notes 1 2 0 19 11 2 1 1 14 16 3 0 2 11 17
Pool 2
Belgium defeated Mexico 10–6, Denmark beat Canada 13–2, Belgium beat Canada 12–1, and Denmark defeated Mexico 9–2.
Rank Nation Notes 1 2 0 22 4 2 2 0 22 7 3 0 2 8 17 4 0 2 3 25
Pool 3
The United States (9–5) and Luxembourg (8–6) each defeated Finland.
Rank Nation Notes 1 1 0 9 5 2 1 0 8 6 3 0 2 11 17
Pool 4
Chile withdrew before competition, leaving France and Norway to advance.
Rank Nation Notes 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 Withdrew
Pool 5
Italy (14–2) and Great Britain (8–6) each defeated Brazil.
Rank Nation Notes 1 1 0 14 2 2 1 0 8 6 3 0 2 8 22
Pool 6
Egypt (10–5) and Switzerland (8–6) each defeated Portugal.
Rank Nation Notes 1 1 0 10 5 2 1 0 8 6 3 0 2 11 18
Pool 7
Sweden (16–0) and Hungary (9–1) each defeated Greece.
Rank Nation Notes 1 1 0 16 0 2 1 0 9 1 3 0 2 1 25
Round 2
The top two teams in each pool advanced to the semifinals.Official Report, p. 362.
Pool 1
Italy beat Poland 14–1, Hungary beat Norway 7–7 (34–35 touches against), Italy beat Norway 12–2, and Hungary beat Poland 10–6.
Rank Nation Notes 1 2 0 26 3 2 2 0 17 13 3 0 2 9 19 4 0 2 7 24
Pool 2
France defeated Denmark 12–4, Egypt beat Great Britain 11–5, France beat Great Britain 12–3, Denmark beat Egypt 8–6, France defeated Egypt 8–5, and Denmark defeated Great Britain 8–4.
Rank Nation Notes 1 3 0 32 12 2 2 1 20 22 3 1 2 22 21 4 0 3 12 31
Pool 3
Switzerland (11–3) and Sweden (9–3) each defeated Argentina.
Rank Nation Notes 1 1 0 11 3 2 1 0 9 3 3 0 2 6 20
Pool 4
Belgium (9–5) and Luxembourg (8–6) each defeated the United States.
Rank Nation Notes 1 1 0 9 5 2 1 0 8 6 3 0 2 11 17
Semifinals
The top two teams in each pool advanced to the final.Official Report, p. 363.
Semifinal 1
This semifinal was one of the more chaotic of the tournament, as Belgium defeated the heavy favorite France but also lost to the last-place Switzerland.
Denmark beat Poland 7–6, France beat Switzerland 12–3, Belgium defeated France 10–5, Denmark beat Switzerland 12–3, Switzerland beat Belgium 7–7 (33–39 touches against), and France beat Denmark 7–5.
Rank Nation Notes 1 2 1 24 16 2 2 1 25 18 3 1 2 23 19 4 1 2 13 33
Semifinal 2
Sweden defeated Hungary 15–0, Italy beat Luxembourg 11–4, Sweden beat Luxembourg 11–3, and Italy defeated Hungary 8–1.
Rank Nation Notes 1 2 0 26 3 2 2 0 19 5 3 0 2 7 22 4 0 2 1 23
Final
In the first pairings, France defeated Sweden 11–4 and Italy beat Denmark 12–4. The second pairings saw the favorites again win, with France 9–1 over Denmark and Italy 8–6 over Sweden. The Sweden-Denmark match was thus a de facto bronze medal match, with Sweden winning 8–7. France defeated Italy 11–5 to take the gold medal.
Rank Nation 3 0 31 10 2 1 25 21 1 2 18 26 4 0 3 12 29
References