# Fencing at the 1920 Summer Olympics – Men's sabre

The men's sabre was a fencing event held as part of the Fencing at the 1920 Summer Olympics programme. It was the sixth appearance of the event. A total of 43 fencers from 9 nations competed in the event, which was held on August 25 and August 26, 1920. Nations were limited to eight fencers each. The event was won by Nedo Nadi of Italy, one of his five gold medals in 1920. His brother Aldo Nadi took silver. Adrianus de Jong of the Netherlands finished third. They were the first medals in the individual men's sabre for both countries. This was the only time from 1908 to 1964 that Hungary did not win the men's sabre—with no Hungarian fencers competing after the nation was disinvited after World War I.

## Background

This was the sixth appearance of the event, which is the only fencing event to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Seven of the eight finalists from 1912 had been Hungarian; with Hungary not invited to the 1920 Games in the aftermath of World War I, none of those seven could return. The other finalist, however, was Nedo Nadi of Italy—the heavy favorite with no Hungarians competing (and with 1919 Inter-Allied champion Vincent Gillens of Belgium not attending either).
Czechoslovakia made its debut in the men's sabre. Italy and Denmark each made their fourth appearance in the event, tying Austria (also not invited to the Games following the war) for most of any nation.

## Competition format

The event used a three-round format. In each round, the fencers were divided into pools to play a round-robin within the pool. Bouts were to three touches (an unpopular change from the more typical five). Standard sabre rules were used, including that the target area was the now-standard target above the waist (in contrast to the larger target in 1912 and the whole body in 1896, 1900, and 1908).
* Quarterfinals: There were 5 pools of between 7 and 9 fencers each. The top 4 fencers in each quarterfinal advanced to the semifinals, except that the top 5 in quarterfinal C advanced (with two men tied for fourth, the tie was not broken and both advanced).
* Semifinals: There were 3 pools of 7 fencers each. The top 4 fencers in each semifinal advanced to the final.
* Final: The final pool had 12 fencers.

## Schedule

| Date | Time | Round |
| Wednesday, 25 August 1920 | 9:00 14:00 | Quarterfinals Semifinals |
| Thursday, 26 August 1920 | | Final |

## Results
### Quarterfinals
#### Quarterfinal A

| Rank | Fencer | Nation | Wins | Losses | Notes |
| 1 | Oreste Puliti | Italy | 6 | 1 | Q |
| 2 | Federico Cesarano | Italy | 5 | 2 | Q |
| 3 | Adrianus de Jong | Netherlands | 5 | 2 | Q |
| 4 | Aage Berntsen | Denmark | 5 | 2 | Q |
| 5 | Marc Perrodon | France | 3 | 4 | |
| 6 | Edwin Fullinwider | United States | 2 | 5 | |
| 7 | Alexandre Simonson | Belgium | 1 | 6 | |
| 7 | Eric Startin | Great Britain | 1 | 6 | |

#### Quarterfinal B

| Rank | Fencer | Nation | Wins | Losses | Notes |
| 1 | Aldo Nadi | Italy | 6 | 1 | Q |
| 2 | Robin Dalglish | Great Britain | 5 | 2 | Q |
| 3 | Félix Goblet | Belgium | 4 | 3 | Q |
| 4 | Henri Wijnoldij-Daniëls | Netherlands | 4 | 3 | Q |
| 5 | Wouter Brouwer | Netherlands | 3 | 4 | |
| 5 | Ronald Campbell | Great Britain | 3 | 4 | |
| 7 | Viliam Tvrský | Czechoslovakia | 2 | 5 | |
| 8 | John Dimond | United States | 1 | 6 | |
| — | Georges Trombert | France | DNF | DNF | |

#### Quarterfinal C

| Rank | Fencer | Nation | Wins | Losses | Notes |
| 1 | Nedo Nadi | Italy | 5 | 1 | Q |
| 2 | Robert Feyerick | Belgium | 3 | 3 | Q |
| 3 | Cecil Kershaw | Great Britain | 3 | 3 | Q |
| 4 | Baldo Baldi | Italy | 3 | 3 | Q |
| 4 | Josef Javůrek | Czechoslovakia | 3 | 3 | Q |
| 6 | Henri de Saint-Germain | France | 2 | 4 | |
| 6 | Clariborne Walker | United States | 2 | 4 | |

#### Quarterfinal D

| Rank | Fencer | Nation | Wins | Losses | Notes |
| 1 | Léon Tom | Belgium | 6 | 1 | Q |
| 2 | Francesco Gargano | Italy | 5 | 2 | Q |
| 3 | Giulio Rusconi | Italy | 4 | 3 | Q |
| 4 | Joseph Parker | United States | 4 | 3 | Q |
| 5 | Evangelos Skotidas | Greece | 3 | 4 | |
| 5 | Zdeněk Vávra | Czechoslovakia | 3 | 4 | |
| 7 | Félix Vigeveno | Netherlands | 2 | 5 | |
| 8 | Arthur Lyon | United States | 1 | 6 | |
| — | Jean Margraff | France | DNF | DNF | |
| — | Alfred Martin | Great Britain | DNF | DNF | |

#### Quarterfinal E

| Rank | Fencer | Nation | Wins | Losses | Notes |
| 1 | Jan van der Wiel | Netherlands | 6 | 2 | Q |
| 2 | Robert Hennet | Belgium | 5 | 3 | Q |
| 3 | Giorgio Santelli | Italy | 5 | 3 | Q |
| 4 | Herbert Huntington | Great Britain | 5 | 3 | Q |
| 5 | Jean Servent | France | 4 | 4 | |
| 5 | Vasilios Zarkadis | Greece | 4 | 4 | |
| 7 | Roscoe Bowman | United States | 3 | 5 | |
| 7 | Jaroslav Šourek | Czechoslovakia | 3 | 5 | |
| 9 | Frederick Cunningham | United States | 1 | 7 | |

### Semifinals
#### Semifinal A

| Rank | Fencer | Nation | Wins | Losses | Notes |
| 1 | Henri Wijnoldij-Daniëls | Netherlands | 4 | 2 | Q |
| 2 | Léon Tom | Belgium | 4 | 2 | Q |
| 3 | Francesco Gargano | Italy | 3 | 3 | Q |
| 4 | Aldo Nadi | Italy | 3 | 3 | Q |
| 5 | Josef Javůrek | Czechoslovakia | 3 | 3 | |
| 6 | Cecil Kershaw | Great Britain | 2 | 4 | |
| 6 | Giorgio Santelli | Italy | 2 | 4 | |

#### Semifinal B

| Rank | Fencer | Nation | Wins | Losses | Notes |
| 1 | Nedo Nadi | Italy | 6 | 0 | Q |
| 2 | Baldo Baldi | Italy | 5 | 1 | Q |
| 3 | Jan van der Wiel | Netherlands | 3 | 3 | Q |
| 4 | Robin Dalglish | Great Britain | 3 | 3 | Q |
| 5 | Robert Feyerick | Belgium | 3 | 3 | |
| 6 | Joseph Parker | United States | 1 | 5 | |
| 7 | Félix Goblet | Belgium | 0 | 6 | |

#### Semifinal C

| Rank | Fencer | Nation | Wins | Losses | Notes |
| 1 | Federico Cesarano | Italy | 5 | 1 | Q |
| 2 | Adrianus de Jong | Netherlands | 5 | 1 | Q |
| 3 | Oreste Puliti | Italy | 4 | 2 | Q |
| 4 | Robert Hennet | Belgium | 3 | 3 | Q |
| 5 | Giulio Rusconi | Italy | 3 | 3 | |
| 6 | Herbert Huntington | Great Britain | 1 | 5 | |
| 7 | Aage Berntsen | Denmark | 0 | 6 | |

### Final

| Rank | Fencer | Nation | Wins | Losses |
| | Nedo Nadi | Italy | 11 | 0 |
| | Aldo Nadi | Italy | 9 | 2 |
| | Adrianus de Jong | Netherlands | 6 | 5 |
| 4 | Oreste Puliti | Italy | 6 | 5 |
| 5 | Jan van der Wiel | Netherlands | 6 | 5 |
| 6 | Léon Tom | Belgium | 5 | 6 |
| 7 | Robert Hennet | Belgium | 5 | 6 |
| 8 | Robin Dalglish | Great Britain | 5 | 6 |
| 9 | Henri Wijnoldij-Daniëls | Netherlands | 4 | 7 |
| 10 | Federico Cesarano | Italy | 3 | 8 |
| 11 | Francesco Gargano | Italy | 3 | 8 |
| 12 | Baldo Baldi | Italy | 3 | 8 |