Edoardo Mangiarotti
Encyclopedia
Edoardo Mangiarotti is an Italian
fencer
. He has won more Olympic
titles and World championships than any other fencer
in the history of the sport. His name is coupled with 21 titles including six Olympic individual and team gold, five silver and two bronze medals from 1936 to 1960.
is one of the original sports from the 1896 Games
. Electronic scoring equipment was introduced in 1936 in the épée events when Mangiarotti won a gold medal with the other members of the Italian team. He consistently won each épée event and was second only to expert Christian d'Oriola
in the foil events. On a points for and against basis in international competition, Mangiarotti was the most successful fencer in history.
ese fencing master and 17 times national épée champion, planned his son’s championship career and molded him into an awkward opponent by converting a natural right-hander to a left-hander. Dario Mangiarotti, older brother of the great Edoardo, won the world title in Cairo in 1949 and a gold and two silver in the Olympics.
senior team at age 16 and competed in the 1935 world championships. The following year young Mangiarotti rewarded his father for his conscientious coaching with an Olympic team épée gold medal in the Olympics.
In Paris, 1937, Edoardo Mangiarotti won a gold medal in a World Championships team event. The next year in Czechoslovakia he finished second in the individual épée, won a bronze in the team épée and a gold in team foil.
At the 1948 London Olympics
, Mangiarotti finished with a bronze medal in the individual épée and two team silver medals. Dario Mangiarotti could not compete because of an injury.
In 1949, Dario won the individual épée World Championship in Cairo while his younger brother participated in the winning épée and foil teams. Two years later Edoardo forged to the top in individual épée by winning the world championships in Stockholm.
in 1952 were the crowning glory for the Mangiarotti brothers. Against a record field of 76 competitors Edoardo Mangiarotti won the Olympic épée individual gold medal with decisive style. After a somewhat shaky start in the final he ran out the winner with seven victories. His brother had won the silver from Switzerland’s Oswald Zappelli, who had beaten Edoardo for the silver medal in the previous Olympics.
The record created at the Helsinki Olympics by the Mangiarotti brothers may be second only to their countrymen the Nadi brothers. While Edoardo secured two gold medals for the épée team and individual titles and two silver medals for the foil team and individual, his brother won a gold medal for the épée team event and a silver for the individual to give the family a remarkable six medals. This compares with the 9 medals, 8 gold and 1 silver, won by Nedo Nadi (5 gold) and his brother Aldo Nadi (3 gold, 1 silver) in the 1920 Olympics, all in fencing. (reference www.olympic.org)
, Edoardo was a fraction past his best but he refused to leave the international arena without a fight. In the individual épée, Australian spectators were treated to a dramatic finale. Three Italians finished equal first, each with five wins and two losses. A barrage had to be held to sort out the medal winners. The drama heightened after the first section of the play off when Mangiarotti, Carlo Pavesi and Giuseppe Delfino all had one win and one loss. The second barrage broke the deadlock; Mangiarotti tired towards midnight and lost both his bouts, then Pavesi beat Delfino to clinch the gold medal. The Italians had a clean sweep of the medals with Mangiarotti taking the bronze. As compensation he won gold in both épée and foil team events.
in Rome, Mangiarotti now a 41-year-old, and the oldest on the Italian team, won a silver medal in the team foil behind the Soviet squad that boasted individual champion Zhdanovich. The Italian épée squad which included Mangiarotti and individual gold medalist Delfino won the team event from a brilliant British squad led by Bill Hoskyns the 1958 World individual champion.
This was Mangiarotti's 13th and last Olympic medal, breaking the previous record of 12 by Paavo Nurmi
at the 1928 Summer Olympics
in Amsterdam
. His record would stand until the 1964 Summer Olympics
in Tokyo
, when Larisa Latynina would win her 18th medal, a record which still stands.
This technique:"La Scuola di Spada Italiana Moderna"-"The Modern School of Italian Sword" was the technique which propelled Sig. Mangiarotti to the many subsequent titles he was to earn, but also did likewise for older brother Dario (although to a lesser degree); while becoming the backbone of the Italian Fencing Federation's (FIS) Nation-wide teaching of Foil and Épée from the mid-1900s. (see: FIS training manual for La Spada {The Épée}circa.1970s-dedication page w/Giuseppe Mangiarotti's photo)
With his successful certification in 1978 by Edoardo & Dario Mangiarotti, after a Six-Month private study period with the brothers at their Milan, Italy-based Fencing School:"Circolo della Spada; Mangiarotti", Maestro Kaufman became the sole Fencing Master in the Western Hemisphere so licensed to carry on the propagation of their father's technique.
After securing this title, Maestro Kaufman became the 1st American since Maestro William Gaugler of San Jose, California in 1976 to earn this title from L'Accademia.
Upon returning to Milan with his Diploma from L'Accademia in hand, the Mangiarotti Brothers then conferred onto their-now-50 year-old prodigy, a new "Certification of Merit" (now, also signed by Maestro Edoardo's daughter, Carola, also a nationally recognized former fencer for Italy in her own right and now, in her capacity as the current Director of the family school, Circolo della Spada; Mangiarotti); which gives Maestro Kaufman further license to not only instruct students, but also license to train and, in turn, certify other Fencing Instructors with the purpose of the further and continued propagation of the "Mangiarotti Technique."
In July, 2004, Maestro Kaufman, in a joint effort with Maestro Marco Romano, President of L'Accademia Nazionale di Scherma of Naples, Italy, wrote the first-ever English-language, written-portion of the Fencing Master's Examination; for the use of all future English-speaking candidates going to Naples for their titles of Maestro di Scherma.
(All of the Diplomae/Certifications of Maestro Stuart Phillip Kaufman can be viewed at the Marin Fencing Academy website: http://www.marinfencing.com)
The Fencing School of the Mangiarotti Brothers would consistently turn out future members of the Italian Olympic Team(s) for years to come; including Bellone in Sr. Épée (Olympic & World Championship titles-1970-80s) and Mazzoni (Jr. World and Olympic Championship titles-1970s-his recent Épée Team participation in Athens), to name a couple.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
fencer
Fencing
Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...
. He has won more Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
titles and World championships than any other fencer
Fencing
Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...
in the history of the sport. His name is coupled with 21 titles including six Olympic individual and team gold, five silver and two bronze medals from 1936 to 1960.
About fencing
FencingFencing
Fencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...
is one of the original sports from the 1896 Games
1896 Summer Olympics
The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, was a multi-sport event celebrated in Athens, Greece, from April 6 to April 15, 1896. It was the first international Olympic Games held in the Modern era...
. Electronic scoring equipment was introduced in 1936 in the épée events when Mangiarotti won a gold medal with the other members of the Italian team. He consistently won each épée event and was second only to expert Christian d'Oriola
Christian d'Oriola
Christian D'Oriola was a noted French foil fencer named "Fencer of the 20th Century" by the FIE, the International Fencing Federation, in 2001....
in the foil events. On a points for and against basis in international competition, Mangiarotti was the most successful fencer in history.
Early life
Edoardo Mangiarotti was born into a famous fencing family on April 7, 1919. Giuseppe Mangiarotti, a MilanMilan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
ese fencing master and 17 times national épée champion, planned his son’s championship career and molded him into an awkward opponent by converting a natural right-hander to a left-hander. Dario Mangiarotti, older brother of the great Edoardo, won the world title in Cairo in 1949 and a gold and two silver in the Olympics.
Career pre-World War II
Edoardo was a national junior foil champion at the age of 11. He won a place in the ItalianItaly
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
senior team at age 16 and competed in the 1935 world championships. The following year young Mangiarotti rewarded his father for his conscientious coaching with an Olympic team épée gold medal in the Olympics.
In Paris, 1937, Edoardo Mangiarotti won a gold medal in a World Championships team event. The next year in Czechoslovakia he finished second in the individual épée, won a bronze in the team épée and a gold in team foil.
Career 1945-50
Even at such an early stage in his career, the young Mangiarotti showed the strong determination and personality that was to separate him from other international competitors in both foil and épée in the 1950s.At the 1948 London Olympics
1948 Summer Olympics
The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in London, England, United Kingdom. After a 12-year hiatus because of World War II, these were the first Summer Olympics since the 1936 Games in Berlin...
, Mangiarotti finished with a bronze medal in the individual épée and two team silver medals. Dario Mangiarotti could not compete because of an injury.
In 1949, Dario won the individual épée World Championship in Cairo while his younger brother participated in the winning épée and foil teams. Two years later Edoardo forged to the top in individual épée by winning the world championships in Stockholm.
1952 Helsinki
The Helsinki Games1952 Summer Olympics
The 1952 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Helsinki, Finland in 1952. Helsinki had been earlier given the 1940 Summer Olympics, which were cancelled due to World War II...
in 1952 were the crowning glory for the Mangiarotti brothers. Against a record field of 76 competitors Edoardo Mangiarotti won the Olympic épée individual gold medal with decisive style. After a somewhat shaky start in the final he ran out the winner with seven victories. His brother had won the silver from Switzerland’s Oswald Zappelli, who had beaten Edoardo for the silver medal in the previous Olympics.
The record created at the Helsinki Olympics by the Mangiarotti brothers may be second only to their countrymen the Nadi brothers. While Edoardo secured two gold medals for the épée team and individual titles and two silver medals for the foil team and individual, his brother won a gold medal for the épée team event and a silver for the individual to give the family a remarkable six medals. This compares with the 9 medals, 8 gold and 1 silver, won by Nedo Nadi (5 gold) and his brother Aldo Nadi (3 gold, 1 silver) in the 1920 Olympics, all in fencing. (reference www.olympic.org)
1956 Melbourne
By the Melbourne Olympics1956 Summer Olympics
The 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, which could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations...
, Edoardo was a fraction past his best but he refused to leave the international arena without a fight. In the individual épée, Australian spectators were treated to a dramatic finale. Three Italians finished equal first, each with five wins and two losses. A barrage had to be held to sort out the medal winners. The drama heightened after the first section of the play off when Mangiarotti, Carlo Pavesi and Giuseppe Delfino all had one win and one loss. The second barrage broke the deadlock; Mangiarotti tired towards midnight and lost both his bouts, then Pavesi beat Delfino to clinch the gold medal. The Italians had a clean sweep of the medals with Mangiarotti taking the bronze. As compensation he won gold in both épée and foil team events.
1960 Rome
At the 1960 Games1960 Summer Olympics
The 1960 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held from August 25 to September 11, 1960 in Rome, Italy...
in Rome, Mangiarotti now a 41-year-old, and the oldest on the Italian team, won a silver medal in the team foil behind the Soviet squad that boasted individual champion Zhdanovich. The Italian épée squad which included Mangiarotti and individual gold medalist Delfino won the team event from a brilliant British squad led by Bill Hoskyns the 1958 World individual champion.
This was Mangiarotti's 13th and last Olympic medal, breaking the previous record of 12 by Paavo Nurmi
Paavo Nurmi
Paavo Johannes Nurmi was a Finnish runner. Born in Turku, he was known as one of the "Flying Finns," a term given to him, Hannes Kolehmainen, Ville Ritola, and others for their distinction in running...
at the 1928 Summer Olympics
1928 Summer Olympics
The 1928 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the IX Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1928 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Amsterdam had bid for the 1920 and 1924 Olympic Games, but had to give way to war-victim Antwerp, Belgium, and Pierre de...
in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. His record would stand until the 1964 Summer Olympics
1964 Summer Olympics
The 1964 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Tokyo, Japan in 1964. Tokyo had been awarded with the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this honor was subsequently passed to Helsinki because of Japan's...
in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, when Larisa Latynina would win her 18th medal, a record which still stands.
Post-Olympic retirement
Mangiarotti retired in 1961 and left the Olympic fencing arena as the greatest combined épée and foil fencer the world had ever seen. His participation in world and Olympic championships spanned 25 years and resulted in an amazing 39 top three placings. This five time Olympian was awarded a Bronze Olympic order in 1977.School and additional studies
In 1978, Sig. Mangiarotti (whose official, Papal title is "Cavaliere di Gran Croce"-"Knight of the Great Cross"; a title handed out by the Vatican with its origins dating back to the Crusades) took under his wing his last student, Maestro Stuart Phillip Kaufman of the Marin Fencing Academy of San Rafael, California (http://www.marinfencing.com); with the express purpose to carry on the technique created by his father, Giuseppe (which he began formulating in the early 1900s while the Fencing Master to the Royal Court of Vittorio Emanuele-Italy's last king). The two had met in 1977, in San Francisco, while Maestro Mangiarotti was holding a 5-City Fencing Clinic in the United States and subsequently accepting Mr. Kaufman's request for more time to learn the technique.This technique:"La Scuola di Spada Italiana Moderna"-"The Modern School of Italian Sword" was the technique which propelled Sig. Mangiarotti to the many subsequent titles he was to earn, but also did likewise for older brother Dario (although to a lesser degree); while becoming the backbone of the Italian Fencing Federation's (FIS) Nation-wide teaching of Foil and Épée from the mid-1900s. (see: FIS training manual for La Spada {The Épée}circa.1970s-dedication page w/Giuseppe Mangiarotti's photo)
With his successful certification in 1978 by Edoardo & Dario Mangiarotti, after a Six-Month private study period with the brothers at their Milan, Italy-based Fencing School:"Circolo della Spada; Mangiarotti", Maestro Kaufman became the sole Fencing Master in the Western Hemisphere so licensed to carry on the propagation of their father's technique.
IOC award
In 2003, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) awarded Edoardo Mangiarotti with a Platinum Wreath, with a document which stated that: "Edoardo Mangiarotti's total of 39 gold, silver & bronze medals in Olympic & World Fencing Championships not only earns him the distinction of being the greatest Fencer in that sport's history, but also distinguishes him as the most decorated athlete in ALL Olympic Sports in the history of the Olympics."School establishment and legacy
Returning to Italy in 2003, Maestro Kaufman travelled back to the Mangiarotti's School for a 2-week training period in preparation for his attendance at the June, 2003 examinations of "L'Accademia Nazionale di Scherma"- The Italian Academy of Arms, for his formal title of "Maestro di Scherma".After securing this title, Maestro Kaufman became the 1st American since Maestro William Gaugler of San Jose, California in 1976 to earn this title from L'Accademia.
Upon returning to Milan with his Diploma from L'Accademia in hand, the Mangiarotti Brothers then conferred onto their-now-50 year-old prodigy, a new "Certification of Merit" (now, also signed by Maestro Edoardo's daughter, Carola, also a nationally recognized former fencer for Italy in her own right and now, in her capacity as the current Director of the family school, Circolo della Spada; Mangiarotti); which gives Maestro Kaufman further license to not only instruct students, but also license to train and, in turn, certify other Fencing Instructors with the purpose of the further and continued propagation of the "Mangiarotti Technique."
In July, 2004, Maestro Kaufman, in a joint effort with Maestro Marco Romano, President of L'Accademia Nazionale di Scherma of Naples, Italy, wrote the first-ever English-language, written-portion of the Fencing Master's Examination; for the use of all future English-speaking candidates going to Naples for their titles of Maestro di Scherma.
(All of the Diplomae/Certifications of Maestro Stuart Phillip Kaufman can be viewed at the Marin Fencing Academy website: http://www.marinfencing.com)
The Fencing School of the Mangiarotti Brothers would consistently turn out future members of the Italian Olympic Team(s) for years to come; including Bellone in Sr. Épée (Olympic & World Championship titles-1970-80s) and Mazzoni (Jr. World and Olympic Championship titles-1970s-his recent Épée Team participation in Athens), to name a couple.
See also
- FencingFencingFencing, which is also known as modern fencing to distinguish it from historical fencing, is a family of combat sports using bladed weapons.Fencing is one of four sports which have been featured at every one of the modern Olympic Games...
- List of multiple Olympic gold medalists
- List of multiple Olympic gold medalists in one event