The men's épée was one of eight fencing events on the fencing at the 1988 Summer Olympics programme. It was the twentieth appearance of the event. The competition was held from 23 to 24 September 1988. 79 fencers from 33 nations competed. Each nation was limited to 3 fencers. The event was won by Arnd Schmitt of West Germany, the nation's second victory in the event (matching Belgium, Cuba, and Hungary for third-most). France's Philippe Riboud took silver, adding to his 1980 and 1984 bronze medals to become the third man to earn three medals in the individual épée. Andrey Shuvalov earned the Soviet Union's first medal in the event since 1968 with his bronze.
Background
This was the 20th appearance of the event, which was not held at the first Games in 1896 (with only foil and sabre events held) but has been held at every Summer Olympics since 1900.
Three of the eight quarterfinalists from 1984 returned: two-time bronze medalist Philippe Riboud of France and fifth-place finishers Alexander Pusch of West Germany and Michel Poffet of Switzerland. Pusch had previously won gold in 1976 (not competing in 1980 due to his country joining the American-led boycott). Riboud had won the World Championship in 1979 and 1986. The reigning World Champion, Volker Fischer, competed on the West German team in the team event but was not one of the nation's three fencers in the individual competition.
Aruba, Bahrain, Jordan, and Paraguay each made their debut in the event. Belgium, France, Great Britain, Sweden, and the United States each appeared for the 18th time, tied for most among nations.
Competition format
The 1988 tournament used a three-phase format very similar to that of 1984, though the second phase (double elimination) round expanded from 16 to 32 fencers.
The first phase was a multi-round round-robin pool play format; each fencer in a pool faced each other fencer in that pool once. There were three pool rounds: The first round had 15 pools of 5 or 6 fencers each, with the top 4 in each pool advancing. The second round had 12 pools of 5 fencers each, with the top 4 in each pool advancing. The third round had 8 pools of 6 fencers each, with the top 4 in each pool advancing.
The second phase was a truncated double-elimination tournament. Four fencers advanced to the final round through the winners brackets and four more advanced via the repechage.
The final phase was a single elimination tournament with a bronze medal match.
Bouts in the round-robin pools were to 5 touches; bouts in the double-elimination and final rounds were to 10 touches.
Schedule
All times are Korea Standard Time adjusted for daylight savings (UTC+10)
Date Time Round Friday, 23 September 1988 8:3013:0015:00 Round 1Round 2Round 3 Wednesday, 21 September 1988 14:00 Double elimination roundQuarterfinalsSemifinalsBronze medal matchFinal
Results
Round 1
Round 1 Pool A
Round 1 Pool B
Round 1 Pool C
Round 1 Pool D
Round 1 Pool E
Round 1 Pool F
Round 1 Pool G
Round 1 Pool H
Round 1 Pool I
Round 1 Pool J
Round 1 Pool K
Round 1 Pool L
Round 1 Pool M
Round 1 Pool N
Round 1 Pool O
Round 2
Round 2 Pool A
Round 2 Pool B
Round 2 Pool C
Round 2 Pool D
Round 2 Pool E
Round 2 Pool F
Round 2 Pool G
Round 2 Pool H
Round 2 Pool I
Round 2 Pool J
Round 2 Pool K
Round 2 Pool L
Round 3
Round 3 Pool A
Round 3 Pool B
Round 3 Pool C
Round 3 Pool D
Round 3 Pool E
Round 3 Pool F
Round 3 Pool G
Round 3 Pool H
Double elimination rounds
Winners brackets
Winners group 1
Winners group 2
Winners group 3
Winners group 4
Repechages
Repechage 1
Repechage 2
Repechage 3
Repechage 4
Final round
Final classification
Fencer Nation Arnd Schmitt Philippe Riboud Andrey Shuvalov Sandro Cuomo Torsten Kühnemund Jerri Bergström Martin Brill Wladimir Resnitschenko Alexander Pusch Ernő Kolczonay Arno Strohmeyer Mauricio Rivas Patrice Gaille Stefano Pantano Michel Poffet Stéphane Ganeff Éric Srecki Jean-Michel Henry Lee Sang-Gi Zoltán Székely Witold Gadomski Stefan Joos Thomas Gerull Johannes Nagele Angelo Mazzoni Mykhailo Tyshko Arwin Kardolus Yun Nam-jin Péter Vánky Antônio Machado Michel Dessureault Du Zhencheng Ludomir Chronowski Uwe Proske Douglas Fonseca Szabolcs Pásztor Ma Zhi Juan Miguel Paz Stephen Trevor John Llewellyn Rafael di Tella Roberto Lazzarini Cezary Siess Mohamed Al-Hamar Joaquin Pinto André Kuhn Rob Stull Axel Birnbaum Hugh Kernohan Lee Il-Hui Ángel Fernández Thierry Soumagne Younes Al-Mashmoum Robert Davidson Otto Drakenberg Fernando de la Peña Sergio Turiace Lars Winter Chan Kai Sang Roberto Durão Alain Côté Khaled Jahrami Jean-Marc Chouinard Tong King King Manuel Pereira Abdul Rahman Khalid José Bandeira Saleh Farhan Ahmed Al-Doseri Austin Thomas Robert Marx Michiel Driessen Wang San-Tsai Zahi El-Khoury Óscar Pinto Ali Abuzamia Tang Wing Keung Michel Youssef Alfredo Bogarín
References