Edoardo Mangiarotti

Edoardo Mangiarotti (born April 7, 1919) 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.

About fencing

Fencing 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.

Early life

Edoardo Mangiarotti was born into a famous fencing family on April 7, 1919. Giuseppe Mangiarotti, a Milanese 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 Italian 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, 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 Games 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 Olympics, 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 Games 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 lead by Bill Hoskyns the 1958 World individual champion.

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 40 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 (see.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.

ee also

*Fencing
*List of multiple Olympic gold medalists