The Olympic team fencing competitions continued with men's team sabre, which ended in a thrilling quick-footed bout in the gold medal match between sabre heavy hitters Aron Szilagyi of Hungary and Oh Sang-Uk of South Korea, who won the Olympic men's individual sabre event last week. In the end, South Korea broke away from Hungary to win its third straight Olympic team title. France finished third to take home the host country's first Olympic medal in men's team sabre since 2008.
In the booming Grand Palais, South Korea dominated the field, winning with a large lead over Canada in the Round of 8 before taking down France in the first semifinal to advance to the gold medal match. Hungary moved forward to the gold medal round after being victorious in a close match with Iran in the second semifinal.
South Korea was eager to claim gold over Hungary. The gold medal game was a rematch of the 2023 World Fencing Championships final in which Hungary won 45-42 to take the world title. This time, South Korea attempted to establish an early lead over Hungary. It was able to keep a slight lead until Hungary's Andras Szatmari nearly leveled the score 29-30 in the sixth bout. The South Korean team decided to swap out Gu Bon-Gil for Do Gyeong-Dong in the seventh bout. Do came out swinging and shut out Hungary's Krisztian Rabb 35-29. Szilagyi made a valiant attempt to even the score in the final bout by earning eight points before Oh hit South Korea's final touch to win gold 45-41.
Earlier in the day, Iran fell to France in a landslide bronze medal match. France's lead over Iran started with one point at the end of the first bout between Iran's Ali Pakdaman and France's Bolade Apithy and progressively got wider through each bout. France substituted Maxime Pianfetti for Jean-Phillippe Patrice in the fifth bout to keep the lead over Iran's Mohammad Rahbari. Iran was trailing by 16 points heading into the final bout. The French crowd was deafening as Sebastien Patrice, Jean-Philippe's younger brother, stepped onto the piste. France was victorious in five quick touches and finished the match 45-25.
"I've been running after this medal for so long. I've known many failures, which hurt me deeply, but this is a beautiful Band-Aid," Apithy said of winning bronze. This is Apithy's first Olympic medal out of three Games.
"I'm retiring, done with fencing," Apithy said. "I take this, and I'm gone, finished."
Americans Mitchell Saron, Colin Heathcock, Filip Dolegiewicz, and three-time Olympian Eli Dershwitz finished seventh after a narrow first elimination-round upset against Iran.
“It’s tough. Sometimes in the sport, you can’t control the outcome.” Dershwitz said. “We were very confident with our preparation coming in. We felt good physically, mentally, and emotionally.”
Men's team sabre medalists
🥇South Korea (Park Sang-Won, Oh Sang-Uk, Gu Bon-Gil, Do Gyeong-Dong)
🥈Hungary (Aron Szilagyi Krisztian Rabb, Andras Szatmari, Csanad Gemesi)
🥉France (Bolade Apithy, Patrice Sebastien, Maxime Pianfetti, Jean-Philippe Patrice)