Periklis Pierrakos Mavromichalis

Bronze medal, April 7, 1896, Pericles Pierrakos Mavromichalis, foil individual. Athens 1896

The foil individual was the first fencing competition of the program, with a total of eight athletes from two countries, France and Greece, participating. The games began in the morning at the Zappeion in the presence of numerous fans. The athletes were divided into pairs and Pericles Pierrakos Mavromichalis, in his first match, faced Henri de Laborde of France, whom he defeated 3:1 and barely managed to qualify. His second match was a Greek duel, with Mavromichalis defeating Yiannis Poulos. The matches were interrupted at noon and continued in the afternoon with the final phase. Thus, the Greek fencer lost his decisive bout against Henri Callot of France in the semifinals and finished third with two wins and one loss.

In his three matches he had a total of seven hits for and four against. In the final, France’s Henri Gravelotte beat Caillot 3-2 to take first place and even become the first Olympian for his country in the competition. The final ranking: Gravelotte (France) Callot (France) Mavromichalis (Greece) Vouros (Greece) De Laborde (France) Miliotis (Greece) Valakakis (Greece) Poulos (Greece).