If you’re from anywhere but Europe or Asia memorizing a bunch of foreign names might be a little tough for you. And with new fencers coming into the scene every year, it gets tougher to keep up with competitors.
And since fencing is already an old enough form of martial arts, there have been millions of names thrown around.
If you pay close attention, however, you’ll notice that certain names come up repeatedly. Fencers like Edarado Mangiarotti, that’ll go down in history. Or Ka Long Cheung, the most recent foil gold medalist.
With millions of fencers in the world and rapidly changing competition, the fight to the top of fencing seems impossible these days. With new champions every year in three different styles of fencing, there are new names on the top every year.
However, there’s a difference between the best and most famous fencers. Some fencers may no longer be on the top, but their names will go down in history.
We’re here today to talk about these fencers, those who’ve left their mark on the sport forever.
Table of Contents
We’ve compiled a list of some of the world’s most famous fencers. Do you recognize any of them?
Edoardo Mangiarotti
The late Edoardo Mangiarotti is hands down the most decorated fencer in the game.
Without a doubt, Edoardo Mangiarotti is the best all-around fencer. With a combined total of 39 Olympic titles and world championships, this man’s track record is insane. He won 1 Olympic individual gold. 5 team golds, 5 silver, and 2 bronze. On top of 13 gold world FIE championships!
His reign over the fencing world lasted from 1936 to 1960 through several Olympic events. As the oldest fencer on the Italian Olympic fencing team, Edoardo retired after breaking the world record with the most Olympic medals.
And although he passed away at age 93 in May 2012, he will always go down as the best-combined foil and epee fencer to live. Although he was bested in foil by Christian d’Oriola, no one dominated fencing more than Edoardo.
There’s no arguing that Edoardo is one of the most famous fencers known, even after death.
Miles Chamley Watson
Of course, he was gonna be on our list, I’m sure you all expected him to be! Celebrity fencer, and our favorite. Miles Chamley Watson is one of the few fencers known by everyone. Whether you fence or not, it’s possible you’ve heard of him.
With 6 total medals in fencing, including two gold championship medals, Miles is an up-and-coming threat to the fencing world. After 8 years in competition, Miles has built quite the name for himself.
Miles spent 4 years at Penn State where he competed in the NCAA. Although he wasn’t number one in college, he grinded his way to the number one spot on the US Olympic team and won the gold in FIE individual foil fencing after graduating.
Miles Chamley Watson is currently one of the most famous fencers in the world, but he isn’t known just for fencing, with appearances on GQ, fashion week, and several magazines and articles, Miles is shedding light on the fencing world through fashion, hip hop, and just being the icon we love.
More recently he’s been popping up on our news feed regarding his new possible love interest, Riverdale star Madelaine Petsch.
With eyes on Miles Chamley Watson from all aspects of pop culture, TV, fashion, sports, and more, we can’t wait to see what’s in store for his fencing career. This trendy fencer, known by many, is definitely considered one of the world’s most famous fencers.
Aladar Gerevich
Arguably the best Olympic fencer to ever live, the late Aladar Gerevich is a fencing legend and is definitely one of the more known fencers. A Hungarian sabre master, Aladar was a 7-time gold medalist in sabre fencing (10 total medals).
His track record is impressive, being the only one of two athletes that won the same event 6 times, Aladar was clearly the best sabre fencer around. After years of fencing in the Olympics, Aladar racked up medals for 28 years.
He was told at age 50 by the Hungarian fencing committee, that he’s too old to compete. And like the legend he is, he challenged the whole team to individual fencing matches and tore each player apart.
Although he passed many years ago at the age of 81, Aladar is and always will be one of the world’s most famous fencers, and a legendary sabre champion.
Honourable Mentions
For one reason or another, a lot of fencers are known around the world. Maybe not as much as the rest of the list, but here are some honorable mentions that you may know of:
Mariel Zagunis
– considered one of the best Olympic fencers, with 9 and the most medals in women’s fencing.
Vladimir Smirnov
– known for a tragic fencing accident in 1982 (see https://fencingprodigy.com/is-fencing-a-dangerous-sport/)
Valentina Vezzali
– well recognized Italian fencer, 16-time world champion
With millions of fencers in the world, it’s difficult to recognize all of them. And let’s not forget about the famous fencers from the past few centuries! We couldn’t list them all, but if you have to know any fencers, you have to know these ones!