Olympics: Fencing with a Touch of Class

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Fencing has often been called a physical chess game, and, as in chess, the nuances are infinite. In the back of the theater, a father said, "I don't know what's happening, Jerry. Too much of this is in French." Actually, "en garde "is part of the universal language. The man was really bewildered by a melee onstage, which caused a row of black ties to depart. "Ladies and gentlemen," said Pierre Baston, the bilingual commentator, "the directorat technique is now adjourning to decide the point. I must warn you that such decisions have been known to take hours. I would make myself comfortable."

The last act, or bout, had the crowd, both knowing and neophyte, in a frenzy of excitement. West Germany's Matthias Behr faced Italy's Mauro Numa. Behr had returned to competition after a hiatus that followed a shattering 1982 fencing accident in which the broken blade of his foil killed the reigning 1980 Olympic champion, Soviet Vladimir Smirnov. Numa took the gold, Behr the silver and Cerioni the bronze. The final bout was won by Numa only after a lightning series of touches, seesawing in the last 28 seconds of a ten-minute contest.

Afterward international ties of friendship were cemented in the lobby. "Are you a fencer?" asked an American of a French girl. "Sure." "Hey! Wow! Touché!" —By Jane O'Reilly