Quick Facts Men's foil at the Games of the II Olympiad, Venue ...

Men's foil at the Games of the II Olympiad
Émile Coste
Venue	Tuileries Garden
Dates	14–21 May
Competitors	54 from 10 nations
Medalists
Émile Coste  France Henri Masson  France Marcel Boulenger  France
← 1896 1904 →

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The amateur foil competition had 54 fencers from 10^[1] nations compete. There was no limit on the number of fencers per nation; 39 of the 54 competitors were French. For the first round, quarterfinals, and repechage, skill and art with the foil was more important to advancing than winning the bout.^[2] The event was swept by French fencers: Émile Coste, Henri Masson, and Marcel Boulenger took the top three places. It was the second consecutive Games that France had taken the top two ranks

This was the second 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 1896 returned.^[3]

Nine of the ten competing nations were making their debut in the men's foil: Austria, Belgium, Haiti, Italy, Peru, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. Only France had previously competed in 1896.

The event used a five-round format (four main rounds and a repechage). For the first three rounds (round 1, quarterfinals, repechage) the round consisted of the fencers being paired and fighting a single bout; jury evaluations of skill rather than the match results were used to determine advancement. The last two rounds (semifinals and finals) used round-robin pool play with actual results counting toward placement. 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.^[3]

• Round 1: The 54 fencers paired off and faced a single opponent in one bout. The jury selected 37 fencers to advance to the quarterfinals.
• Quarterfinals: The 37 fencers were paired off again, with one fencer having no opponent. Three men withdrew, cancelling one bout altogether and resulting in one fencer fencing twice. The jury selected 10 fencers for the semifinals and 14 more for the repechage.
• Repechage: The 14 fencers selected from the quarterfinals were paired. The jury selected 6 of them to advance. When one qualified fencer withdrew, a 7th fencer was advanced from the repechage.
• Semifinals: The 16 fencers from the quarterfinals and repechage were divided into two pools of 8 fencers each. Each pool played a round robin. The top four fencers in each semifinal pool advanced to the final, while the bottom four fencers went to a classification 9–16 final.
• Finals: There was a main final (top 4 from each semifinal) and a classification 9–16 final (bottom 4 from each semifinal). Each was conducted as a round-robin.