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Last Updated: Saturday, 7 August, 2004, 05:36 GMT 06:36 UK
Olympic countdown: 6 days
Who is the only person to win 6 consecutive golds?

Russian Serguei Charikov (L) and Poland's Adam Skrodzki clash in the men's sabre team final at the 2004 European Fencing Championships
Fencing: one of only five sports contested at every modern games
Steve Redgrave's haul of five consecutive Olympic gold medals is a record in an endurance sport.

But Hungarian fencer Aladar Gerevich holds the all-time record as the only athlete in any sport to win the same Olympic event six times.

He won his first gold aged 22 in 1932 and his last aged 50 in 1960 - his 28-year winning span is also a record.

Gerevich's wife Erna, his son Pal and his father-in-law Albert Bogen were also Olympic fencing medalists.

British fencer Bill Hoskyns also competed in six Olympic games - between 1956 and 1976.

But he could only managed two silvers, the second in 1964 - the time Britain won a fencing medal.

A specialist in sabre fencing, Gerevich's record would have been even more extraordinary had World War II, and the cancellation of two Olympics, not denied him a crack at more medals.

All but one of Gerevich's golds came in team events - he won his only solo gold in the individual sabre at the 1948 Olympics with a record of 19 wins and only one loss.

At the 1952 Helsinki Games, Gerevich won a complete set of medals: bronze in team foil, gold in team sabre and silver in individual sabre.

The sport was one of the few original sports held in 1896 (when the first Olympic champion was Frenchman Emile Gravelotte) and is one of only five sports to have been contested at every modern games (athletics, cycling swimming, gymnastics, being the others).

Rowing would have been a sixth - but rough seas forced the cancellation of the event in 1896.





Links to more Olympics 2004 stories


 

SEE ALSO
Beginner's guide to fencing
18 Mar 04  |  Sport Guide
Britain's fencing duo
28 Jun 04  |  Fencing


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