After 15 years on the international scene and having already appeared at three Olympic Games,Antonella Ragno-Lonzi had never quite scaled the heights. She had won a silver medal at the 1967 World Championships but mostly she was a regular bronze medallist and even then the medals had dried up in recent times.

The possibility of an Olympic championship looked even further away when she only progressed through the first round with a losing record. She did manage to qualify for the final though with the worst record of the six finalists and was not thought of as a medal contender.

As in the men’s team sabre, the Italian supporters were privileged to see their favourite pull out a series of upset victories to claim the Olympic title. Ragno-Lonzi’s four wins saw her take gold ahead of the more favouredIldikó Farkasinszky-Bóbis of Hungary and the USSR’s [Galina Gorokhova]().