Edoardo Mangiarotti
Italy
Fencing
Overall Ranks
#2 among Italian Olympians
#2 among Fencers
#1 among Italian Fencers
Olympic Results
1936
Team Epee - Gold
1948
Team Foil - Silver
Individual Epee - Bronze
Team Epee - Silver
1952
Individual Foil - Silver
Team Foil - Silver
Individual Epee - Gold
Team Epee - Gold
1956
Team Foil - Gold
Individual Epee - Bronze
Team Epee - Gold
1960
Team Foil - Silver
Team Epee - Gold
Total
Events - 14
Gold - 6
Silver - 5
Bronze - 2
Edoardo Mangiarotti was born on April 7, 1919 in Renate, Italy, to a father who was a 17-time national fencing champion. His father trained him from a young age to fence with his left hand, even though he was naturally right-handed, in order to make him a tougher opponent. He became the national junior champion when he was just 11, and made the national senior team at age 16.
At age 17, he competed in his first Olympics, traveling to Berlin for the team epee event. In the first round, he went 2-1 against Hungary, then went a perfect 3-0 against Czechoslovakia in the next round. He had 4 wins and 2 losses total in the semifinals, and Italy advanced to the final pool, having not lost a match. They used him in all 3 finals matches, and he rewarded them by going 7-1 in his bouts, and Italy dominated their way to the gold medal, and a new star was born.
Because of World War II, he wouldn't have another chance to compete in the Olympics for 12 years, where he would compete in both the foil and the epee. He started out with the team foil event, where he went 9-1 through the early rounds, helping Italy to make the final pool. In the final pool, he went 8-2 overall, but Italy and France tied 8-8 in the final match, and the tiebreaker was decided by total touches, which gave France the gold medal by a count of 62-60.
Next up was a chance to defend Italy's gold medal from 1936 in the team epee. In the first round, he struggled against Brazil, only going 2-2, but the rest of his team was a perfect 12-0, so they advanced easily. He made up for it by going 11-1 over the next two rounds, leading Italy back to the final pool. He went 9-3 in the final pool, but the rest of his team went 3-9 against France, and they ended up with another team silver medal.
That year, he also competed in the individual epee for the first time. He was given a first-round bye since he competed in the team final, then squeaked through the next two rounds with a record of 8-5 to advance to the final pool. In that pool, he started out by beating teammate Gino Cantone, but Cantone would only lose one other match, and ended up with the gold medal. Mangiarotti ended up at 5-4, which put him in a 4-way tie for second place, and he was tied on touches with Oswald Zappelli of Switzerland, but since he lost the head-to-head, he ended up with the bronze medal.
Four years later in Helsinki, he would have the best week of his career. He started out again with the team foil event, where they had won silver previously. He wasn't used much in the early rounds, but went 4-0 when he was. In the final, he was 6-2, but it once again wasn't enough, as France beat them 8-6 in their match, and Italy took home the silver again.
That year, he was also selected to compete in the individual foil event. He was completely perfect in the early rounds, going 11-0 on his way to the final pool. In the final pool, however, he ran into a juggernaut in Christian d'Oriola of France, the 4-time defending world champion, who won all 8 of his bouts to take the gold medal. Mangiarotti, in his first Olympic foil singles event, ended up with his second silver of the games.
In the team epee event, France was upset in the quarterfinal round, which opened up a clear path to gold for the Italians. Italy saved him until the final pool due to his busy schedule, but used him in all 3 finals matches, and he went 8-3 overall in those bouts, and Italy made it through the tournament without a lost match to win the gold medal, an honor he shared with his older brother, Dario, who was also on the team.
Both brothers also competed in the individual epee event. Edoardo went 14-2 through the early rounds as he won both of his pools to advance to the final, and his brother went 12-4. In the final pool, Edoardo went 7-2 against the 9 other finalists, which was good enough to earn him the gold medal, the first individual gold of his Olympic career, and his brother ended up winning the silver.
He was chosen to compete in the same 4 events in Melbourne in 1956. He was held out until the semifinals in the team foil event, and then struggled in that round, only going 3-4 as Italy beat Great Britain on a tiebreaker to advance to the final pool. He was much better in the final, going 9-3 overall, which was important, because they won all 3 matches either 9-7 or 8-8 with a tiebreaker, so losing even one more bout could have cost them the gold, but they did walk away on top.
In the individual foil event, he went 4-3 in his first round pool, which turned out not to be enough, as he was eliminated in a tiebreaker, and failed to reach the final pool and win a medal for the only time in his Olympic career.
Next, he tried to lead Italy to repeat as gold medalists in the team epee event. He was held out of the first round, then went 3-0 in the semifinal, which was once again fortuitous, because the team lost a match to Belgium without him, and advanced on a tiebreaker due to their large margin of victory over Hungary. He fenced in all three finals matches, and Italy dominated them all, while Mangiarotti went 8-3 in his bouts, and they successfully defended their gold medal.
He was also attempting to defend his individual epee gold that year. He was solid in the early rounds, going 10-3 on his way back to the final pool. In the final, he and his two Italian teammates, Carlo Pavesi and Giuseppe Delfino, each went 5-2, and this time ties were broken by tiebreaking matches rather than touches. The three each fenced each other again, and each won one and lost one, leaving another tie. After another round, Pavesi came out victorious, while Delfino beat Mangiarotti for the silver, leaving him with an individual bronze.
The next Olympics took place in Rome, and though he was going to be 41 years old, he still wanted to compete, and they allowed him to compete in the team events. They used him in the first round, where he went 1-1 against Romania, as Italy won 9-2. It was single elimination after that round, but he wasn't used again until the final, where he went 1-2 as Italy lost to the USSR and ended up with the silver medal.
They were going for their third straight gold in the team epee, which was his better discipline. He went 4-2 in their first round pool, but was only 1-2 against Sweden in the semifinals, which Italy won 9-3 overall. They held him out of the semifinals, then used him in the final against Great Britain, where he again went 1-2, but Italy still won the gold 9-5, earning Mangiarotti one final gold medal.
He retired the next year, and at the time of his retirement, he had 13 total medals, the most of any Olympian at the time, having just passed Paavo Nurmi, who had 12. His record would be broken at the next Olympics, but he still has the most medals ever among fencers, and is definitely one of the greatest Olympians of all time.
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