Nedo Nadi (9 June 1894 – 29 January 1940) was one of the bestItalianfencers of all time. He is the only fencer to win agold medal in each of thethree weapons at a singleOlympic Games and won the most fencing gold medals ever at a single Games—five. Nadi won six Olympic gold medals in total.[1]
Nedo Nadi was born inLivorno,Italy, the elder son of famous Italian fencing master, Giuseppe (Beppe) Nadi. He had a younger brother,Aldo who was an Olympic gold medallist in his own right. Nedo had his first fencing lesson with a foil at the age of seven in his father’s gymnasium at Livorno. His father taught him foil and sabre but believed the épée to be an "undisciplined" weapon and refused to teach it. The brothers therefore used to go and practice by themselves and were essentially self-taught on épée.[2] At the age of fourteen Nedo won a solid silver trophy for his three weapon work during the Jubilee celebration ofEmperor Franz Joseph atVienna.[3]
Competing for his country at 1912Stockholm Olympics, Nadi became the youngest fencer to win a foil gold medal. Aged 18 years and 29 days, he beat teammatePietro Speciale andRichard Verderber ofAustria for the individual gold with seven straight victories in the final pool.[2]
Nadi resumed his competitive career after World War I was over. Defeatedcentral European countries and theSoviet Union did not attend theAntwerp games. This meant thatHungary, one of the strongest fencing nations, would be absent. Nadi therefore decided to expand his chances for gold and entered all three fencing disciplines in the team events, as well as the individual foil and sabre.
Nedo Nadi’s 1920 Olympic performances were acclaimed as near to perfection as a fencer could execute. Nadi won the individual foil gold medal with a record 10 wins in the final pool.
Nadi’s entry in the team épée event annoyed his father, who regarded the épée as "a crude and undisciplined weapon”. Unlike the foil, where a fencer could only score off a hit which landed on the trunk of the opponent’s body, or the sabre where the upper torso and face mask count as scoring hits, in épée any part of the body is a legitimate hit. Nevertheless, Nedo Nadi led the Italian épée team, which included his brother Aldo, to the Olympic team gold medal.[2] Nadi did not compete in the individual épée event, however.
Nedo Nadi's perfect balance, timing and rapid reflexes were an advantage in any style of fencing, so without much difficulty he won the individual sabre gold medal by 11 victories to 9. His brotherAldo won the silver medal. In the team sabre event, the Italian team supported their star fencer and cruised to an easy victory.[2]
Nadi, carried in triumph by his opponents, added three team victories to his tally of two individual golds and his younger brother Aldo won three team gold and one silver to make the family total a record for any sport in one Olympic Games.
After his Antwerp Olympic victories Nadi turnedprofessional and took up coaching at theBuenos Aires Jockey Club. He returned toRome some years later and was reinstated as anamateur. In 1932 he retired from actively fencing.[3] From 1935 to his death in January 1940 he served as president of the Italian Fencing Federation.[2] Italian Prime MinisterBenito Mussolini called upon Nadi to coach the Italian fencing team to be entered in the1936 Summer Olympics which challenge Nadi accepted.[3] His teams performed well, dominating the games, with Italian fencers sweeping gold, silver, and bronze in the individual épée competitions, thus easily claiming the team épée gold; collecting the individual gold and bronze and team gold in foil; and the individual and team silver medals in sabre.
His brother Aldo moved toHollywood where he worked in the film industry.
TheNadisee ofMunich is a smallest bathing lake that was built together with the Olympic Village for the1972 Summer Olympics along with the Nadistraße both referees to theItalian athlete Nedo Nadi
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