Top facts about Edoardo Mangiarotti, the most decorated fencer

Edoardo Mangiarotti was an Italian fencer who is considered to be the most successful swordsman in the history of the sport, as he racked up a raft of 39 Olympic and World Championships medals, which is the most in the sport of all time.

In a span of a career that took long more than four decades, he won 13 Olympic medals and 13 team world championships in foil and épée along with receiving 8 silver and 5 bronze medals at the world stage from 1937 to 1958.

Among the 13 Olympic medals, six were gold, five were silver and two were bronze as he managed to bag them between 1936 to 1960 for a period of 24 years.

His total of 13 Olympic medals is the same number as those of Boris Shakhlin, a Soviet gymnast, and Takashi Ono, a Japanese gymnast.

Only athletes like Larisa Latynina, a Soviet gymnast, with 18 Olympic medals; Michael Phelps, an American swimmer, with 16 medals; and Nikolai Andrianov, a Soviet gymnast, with 15 medals; earned more medals than him.

Yet he failed to gain the recognition that for example Michael Phelps earned in his career. You don't have to go very far to find out the reason, it's simply because fencing is not among the most popular sports. Let's check in to

to make sure fencing is among them or not.

Top facts about Edoardo Mangiarotti that you might want to know

You might find it fascinating that despite many other sports, fencing is one of the original sports from the 1896 Games.

With the introduction of Electronic scoring equipment in the épée events of 1936, Mangiarotti took a gold medal with the other members of the Italian team.

He unfailingly collected each épée event and was second just to expert Christian d'Oriola in the foil events. On point for and against basis in international tournaments, Mangiarotti was the most thriving swordsman in the history of fencing.

One of the most interesting

top facts about Edoardo Mangiarotti

is that he went to a total of 17 Olympic editions, either as an athlete, administrator or spectator.

He had made his mind to make it to the 2008 Games in Beijing, in spite of the fact that he had a stroke five months earlier and was left temporarily speechless.

He expressed as saying “While I’m still alive, I will go to the Olympic Games,” and of course he participated in the 2008 editions of the Games.

Here we have come up with such curiosity satisfying top facts about Edoardo Mangiarotti, who is not only the best ever performer in the sport of fencing but he is among the

as well. Let's see who are the other athletes that earned more medals than him.

Now is the turn to probe into the twist and turns of Edoardo's career and personal life issues to see what had made him be such a great legend.

Edoardo Mangiarotti facts in brief

General information

• Full name

  : Edoardo Mangiarotti

• Date of birth

  : 07 Apr 1919

• Age

  : 93 years

• Horoscope

  : Aries

• Place of birth

  : Renate

• Nationality

  : Italian

• Date of death

  : May 25, 2012

• Place of burial

  : Italy

• Gender

  : Male

Personal information

• Lucky number

  : 4

• Lucky stone

  : Diamond

• Lucky colour

  : Red

• Best match for marriage

  : Leo

• Marital status

  : Married

• Wife

  : Camilla Castiglioni

• Father

  : Giuseppe Mangiarotti

• Mother

  : Rosetta Mangiarotti

• Siblings

  : Dario Mangiarotti, Mario Mangiarotti

• Profession

  : Fencer

• Net worth

  : $1.5 million

Physical status

• Eye colour

  : Black

• Hair colour

  : White

Edoardo Mangiarotti childhood and family

Edoardo Mangiarotti was born on 7 April 1919 to his mother, Rosetta Mangiarotti and his father Giuseppe Mangiarotti.

It seems that Fencing runs in the veins of his family since his father was a prominent figure in fencing as he had earned 17 national épée championship titles.

Likewise, it is no wonder to see such a maestro fencer made his son be a southpaw as Edoardo was naturally a right-handed fencer.

This was a great privilege for him, as it made his opponents perplexed to cope with a fencer who was able to respond on the same side they were attacking him. That was what made him unpredictable as it turned out to be a key element in a raft of his incredible triumphs.

He had a crucial strategy to attack his rivals with the first touches in the bout so as to gain a points advantage that often made him unconquerable for the rest of the bout.

His two siblings were not deprived of such fencing abilities as Dario Mangiarotti, the elder brother of the great Edoardo, earned the world title in Cairo in 1949 and a gold and two silver in the Olympics as he was a part of the Italian medal-winning Olympic épée teams in 1948 and 1952.

Also, Dario collected 12 medals in the Olympics and World Championship. It is to be said that both of them were taught by their father, Giuseppe while their other brother Mario Mangiarotti was also a fencer.

In

Edoardo Mangiarotti childhood

, he started fencing at the age of eight while for the first time he grabbed a triumph in the epee open in Tripoli when he was just 14 years old.

It is notable to suggest that the epee is considered to be a light sword that appeared to be his favourite weapon as well as the foil. His debut appearance at the Olympiad occurred when he was 17 years old, and with that tender age, he helped his team got the gold medal in the team épée gold event.

Edoardo Mangiarotti professional career

In his Pre-World War II career, when Edoardo was 11 years old, he became a national junior foil champion. At the age of 16, he earned a spot in the Italian senior team and contested in the 1935 world championships.

Then after a year, he compensated for his father conscientious tutoring as he won an Olympic team épée gold medal in the Olympics.

Afterwards, in Paris, 1937, he bagged a gold medal in a World Championships team event. The following year in Czechoslovakia he ended up second in the individual épée, as he took a bronze in the team épée and gold in team foil.

In the early stage of his career between 1945 and 50, he had a very firm and determined character that was what exactly made him very distinguished from other international contenders in both foil and épée in the 1950s.

At the 1948 edition of the Olympics in London, he ended up with a bronze medal in the individual épée as well as two team silver medals while his brother Dario Mangiarotti was unable to take part in the tournament due to an injury.

But in 1949, Dario got the individual épée World Championship in Cairo whereas our legend was a part of winning épée and foil teams.

Yet it took no longer than two years for Edoardo to take the top position in individual épée as he succeeded to win the world championships in Stockholm.

The Mangiarotti brothers took the utmost privilege from the Helsinki Games in 1952 as it turned out to be a crowning glory for them.

Precisely as saying, Edoardo took the Olympic épée individual gold medal with an amazingly decisive style against a record field of 76 contenders. Although in the final he had not a very auspicious start, he ended up being the winner with seven victories.

It means that Edoardo collected two gold medals in the épée team and individual events and two silver medals for the foil team and individual.

While his brother who had won the silver medal in Switzerland’s Oswald Zappelli and had defeated Edoardo for the silver medal in the previous Olympics, managed to win a gold medal for the épée team event and a silver for the individual so as to give their family a whopping six medals in the tournament.

One of the amazing top facts about Edoardo Mangiarotti is that this feat was second only to the Nadi brothers who bagged a total of 9 medals, 8 gold and 1 silver as Nedo Nadi won 5 gold and his brother Aldo Nadi won 3 gold, 1 silver ar the 1920 Olympics, in the same sport of fencing.

In the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, Edoardo did not manage to perform as was expected from him but he could not leave the international arena without any fight.

That is to say, in the individual épée, Australian audiences observed a very dramatic finale as three Italians ended up being equal first, each with five victories and two defeats.

Therefore a barrage had to take place so as to sort out the medal winners. It was even more amazing when in the first section of the playoff, Mangiarotti, Carlo Pavesi and Giuseppe Delfino all had one victory and one defeat.

But in the second barrage, the deadlock was broken as Mangiarotti tired towards midnight and was beaten in both of his bouts, while Pavesi defeated Delfino to bag the gold medal.

With the Italians having a clean sweep of the medals, Mangiarotti finished getting the bronze. But he compensated it by receiving gold in both épée and foil team events.

Then at the 1960 Games in Rome, with the age of 41 years old and as the oldest member of the Italian team, he managed to win a silver medal in the team foil just behind the Soviet squad that was benefitted from the presence of individual champion Zhdanovich.

But the Italian épée squad with the inclusion of Mangiarotti and individual gold medalist Delfino had already done a herculean task as they defeated the team event of a brilliant British squad that was led by Bill Hoskyns, the 1958 World individual champion.

Finally, this was assumed to be Mangiarotti's 13th and last Olympic medal, as he smashed the last record of 12 by Paavo Nurmi at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam.

This record stood until the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo when Larisa Latynina would win her 18th medal, a record which lasted until Michael Phelps's record at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

As a result, Mangiarotti became retired in 1961 and left the Olympic fencing stage as the greatest mixed épée and foil fencer the world had ever observed.

His contribution to the world and Olympic championships stretched around 25 years and ended up in a spectacular 39 top three spots. While as a five-time Olympian, he was granted a Bronze Olympic order in 1977 as well.

Then in 2003, he was honoured to be awarded the International Olympic Committee's Platinum Wreath, along with a document indicating:

"Edoardo Mangiarotti's total of 39 gold, silver & bronze medals in Olympic & World Fencing Championships which earns him the distinction of being the greatest Fencer in that sport's history."

Edoardo Mangiarotti death

One of the most heart wrenching top facts about Edoardo Mangiarotti is that he died on Friday, on 25th May 2012, in Milan, Italy.

But at the time of his death, he had already just ninety-three years old. It is to be said that he passed away owing to a heart attack. However, aside from this, there is not any transparent data on this case.

Yet what is utterly clear is the fact that he gained huge popularity at the stage of the world and would be always alive in the heart of the sport of fencing enthusiasts in the light of his spectacular performances and immense talents.

Edoardo Mangiarotti personal life and social media

In regard to

top facts about Edoardo Mangiarotti

and delving more into his personal life affairs, one can suggest that he was a married man as his wife was Camilla Castiglioni. Yet, there is not much information available about when they started dating, their relationship and their love life.

This lack of data is because Edoardo had a reserved, secretive and introverted personality and had never told anything about his any of the relationships to anyone until the time that he was alive. It is self-evident that he was not involved in any of the unwanted rumours and controversies.

When it comes to

Edoardo Mangiarotti social media

activity, it is inferable that he has not been present on any networking platforms. That is to say, he had not any social media accounts like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

After all, activity on social media platforms at that time did not mean a lot. However considering his reserved character, even if he was alive in this era, he would have maintained a low and clean profile everywhere.

Edoardo Mangiarotti net worth and body measurement

When it comes to top facts about

Edoardo Mangiarotti net worth

, undoubtedly he managed to earn a huge amount of money with his impressive professional skills. This means that at the time that he was alive, he made a net worth of around $1.5 million.

An overwhelming majority of this money was earned through his participation in a raft of tournaments as a fencer. Considering such a whopping amount of money, he was certainly residing in a luxurious and elegant home in Italy along with his family.

Even though his exact body size and weight have been not revealed yet, as one of the

top facts about Edoardo Mangiarotti

, it is worthwhile mentioning that he must have a very suitable body measurement.

Since any sportsman with his talent must oblige himself to do regular exercises and follow a strict and healthy diet so as to keep his body type as slim and muscular as it is observable in his photos.

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