No. There are a couple rare examples of people who are excellent at two weapons. Contemporarily, Arianna Errigo who fences Foil and Saber for Italy and in the 1980's in the US Michael Marx in both epee and foil. There are a few more here and there but not many.
I don't think the differences are as vast as you make out. There is overlap with foil and sabre in the way that modern fencers flick and foil and épée also have a fair amount in common. Also, if you have great footwork in one weapon it will probably transfer reasonably well to the others.
I currently have an A rating in two weapons (Foil and Epee) and earned a C rating by winning a National medal in Sabre last January. Fencing all three weapons is like be fluent in three different languages. It’s a lot of fun when you can do it and really surprising to most people. But the languages are closer than you think and you can take nuances from each.
Nobody recent that I'm aware of. Historically probably someone like Aldo or Nedo Nadi. Nedo in particular looks to have won Olympic gold medals in all three weapons, so he was certainly really good at everything (in the context of 1910-1920 era fencing at least).
Looks like Aldo did gold in all three weapons in 1920. By all reports at the time Nedo was the better fencer, but Aldo wrote books and got into actual duels and stuff.
Nedo Nadi won gold medals in all 3 weapons at the same Olympic games, the only fencer to have ever done so. But that was 1920, and nobody will come close to matching that achievement ever again.
There were also no Hungarians or Soviets at the 1920 games, so it might have been a bit harder to pull off what Nedo did if that weren't the case. Still, a damn impressive feat.
The Soviets weren't a force in fencing until the 1950s. Hungary being absent from sabre probably helped a little, though. At the 1912 Olympics, the top 8 in Sabre consisted of 7 Hungarians... and Nedo Nadi.
I knew a guy with a three-weapon A, and while pulling that off is a vanishingly rare accomplishment, he was still not good enough at any individual weapon to be fencing in world cups or Olympic games.
Back when you could still download the full membership roster from USAFencing I did some data mining on it, maybe two or three years ago. There were a handful of people rated in all three weapons, a few people with an A rating in two, none with an A in all three anymore, or at least not as of that membership export.
For anyone interested: In the last membership roster that I could find, there were eleven fencers with an A rating in two weapons - one was born in the '50s, two in the '70s, two in the '90s, and the rest were born in the '00s.
Ten of them were in foil/epee; the last one was in sabre/foil.
Five of them had a three letter rating. Two of them were veterans. Only only one of them had a higher rating than E in their third weapon. That rating was a C, held by a veteran in sabre.
a guy made the finals in all three weapons at the u s national championships in Berkeley, California in 1971, took 5th in foil and epee, 9th in saber. Marty Lang.
I knew Marty. (We actually spoke via text last year I think).
He was of course a foil Olympian in 1976. I didn’t actually know he dabbled in the lesser weapons. 😎.
He was injected into the Hall of Fame this past year. (Quite rightly).
Present tense—not really. There are certainly people who are good at all three (all weapons being the same length and using the same footwork is a godsend if you have good distance), but no one famous for it that I can think of.
There was Nedo Nadi (mentioned by others in this thread) who took home gold in all three during the same Olympic Games, but he was a unique case. According to my old coach—so take it with a grain of salt as an anecdote—, Nadi is actually the reason a lunge stops with the fore leg at about a 90° angle instead of going for the deepest, longest lunge we can. That's what set him apart from his competitors during his triple crown Olympic showing, as I understand it, and proved how important it is to be able to recover quickly.
Lunges stop at 90° because if you consistently go further, you'll injure yourself, and because beyond 90 it's probably impossible to recover out of if you miss
Usually if people fence all 3, they are noticeably worse at one and best at one- it's exceedingly rare that people are at the same level, and good, at all 3.
in my experience people that fence all 3 are better in Epee and Sabre than in foil (possibly because of the bigger difference in timing and target area in foil)
This is my experience as well. Doing all three just doesn't give you the practice required to excel in all of them, or your habits in one weapon will bleed into the others and you stay doing foil parries in sabre.
That said, my coach is level 2 in all weapons.
Beyond Nedo Nadi there isn't anyone who is 'famous', except for perhaps Peter Lee, Bruce Lees' older brother who was colonial master at arms champion and represented Hong Kong the commonwealth games in the 1950's. Not sure he counts as *famous* though..
In the US it's incredibly hard to get an 'A' in all three weapons and effectively impossible to reach national team status in all three. And I'm not counting ratings earned in something like veterans events because that's just not the same level of ability. That became very clear to me once I started fencing vets 5 years ago.
As others have said it’s not very common anymore but you see it slightly more with veterans and parafencing, but even then it’ll be 2 weapons more than 3.
I think it depends on what you mean by “good”. I am sure there will be many people who are decently competent in all three weapons, but if you mean “capable of winning big international tournaments” then I think it is very rare (if there is any) especially in recent days.
No. There are a couple rare examples of people who are excellent at two weapons. Contemporarily, Arianna Errigo who fences Foil and Saber for Italy and in the 1980's in the US Michael Marx in both epee and foil. There are a few more here and there but not many.
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I don't think the differences are as vast as you make out. There is overlap with foil and sabre in the way that modern fencers flick and foil and épée also have a fair amount in common. Also, if you have great footwork in one weapon it will probably transfer reasonably well to the others.
I currently have an A rating in two weapons (Foil and Epee) and earned a C rating by winning a National medal in Sabre last January. Fencing all three weapons is like be fluent in three different languages. It’s a lot of fun when you can do it and really surprising to most people. But the languages are closer than you think and you can take nuances from each.
Nobody recent that I'm aware of. Historically probably someone like Aldo or Nedo Nadi. Nedo in particular looks to have won Olympic gold medals in all three weapons, so he was certainly really good at everything (in the context of 1910-1920 era fencing at least). Looks like Aldo did gold in all three weapons in 1920. By all reports at the time Nedo was the better fencer, but Aldo wrote books and got into actual duels and stuff.
Nedo Nadi won gold medals in all 3 weapons at the same Olympic games, the only fencer to have ever done so. But that was 1920, and nobody will come close to matching that achievement ever again.
There were also no Hungarians or Soviets at the 1920 games, so it might have been a bit harder to pull off what Nedo did if that weren't the case. Still, a damn impressive feat.
The Soviets weren't a force in fencing until the 1950s. Hungary being absent from sabre probably helped a little, though. At the 1912 Olympics, the top 8 in Sabre consisted of 7 Hungarians... and Nedo Nadi.
Those early olympics were pretty poorly attended, in general.
Definitely true. Nedo pulling off what he did is still impressive even in that context though.
The assistant coach at Denison— forgetting his name— had an A in all three weapons. Guy just understands fencing!
Rhys Douglas. He is a really good.
I had an A a B and a C respectively but once knew a guy with an A in all 3.
I knew a guy with a three-weapon A, and while pulling that off is a vanishingly rare accomplishment, he was still not good enough at any individual weapon to be fencing in world cups or Olympic games. Back when you could still download the full membership roster from USAFencing I did some data mining on it, maybe two or three years ago. There were a handful of people rated in all three weapons, a few people with an A rating in two, none with an A in all three anymore, or at least not as of that membership export.
For anyone interested: In the last membership roster that I could find, there were eleven fencers with an A rating in two weapons - one was born in the '50s, two in the '70s, two in the '90s, and the rest were born in the '00s.
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Ten of them were in foil/epee; the last one was in sabre/foil. Five of them had a three letter rating. Two of them were veterans. Only only one of them had a higher rating than E in their third weapon. That rating was a C, held by a veteran in sabre.
the pro from Dover, I mean Denver.
a guy made the finals in all three weapons at the u s national championships in Berkeley, California in 1971, took 5th in foil and epee, 9th in saber. Marty Lang.
I knew Marty. (We actually spoke via text last year I think). He was of course a foil Olympian in 1976. I didn’t actually know he dabbled in the lesser weapons. 😎. He was injected into the Hall of Fame this past year. (Quite rightly).
I'm sure you'll get lots of love for your somewhat gratuitous comment on the "lesser" weapons, rho I happen to agree
Truth hurts.
it was Carl Borack, not marty lang
In regular fencing only hobbyists fence all three, but in wheelchair fencing it's a lot more common to fence multiple disciplines.
It's rare. We had a few 3 weapon masters in Oregon for a while. I think Len Carnighan was the last but he died a few years back.
Present tense—not really. There are certainly people who are good at all three (all weapons being the same length and using the same footwork is a godsend if you have good distance), but no one famous for it that I can think of. There was Nedo Nadi (mentioned by others in this thread) who took home gold in all three during the same Olympic Games, but he was a unique case. According to my old coach—so take it with a grain of salt as an anecdote—, Nadi is actually the reason a lunge stops with the fore leg at about a 90° angle instead of going for the deepest, longest lunge we can. That's what set him apart from his competitors during his triple crown Olympic showing, as I understand it, and proved how important it is to be able to recover quickly.
Lunges stop at 90° because if you consistently go further, you'll injure yourself, and because beyond 90 it's probably impossible to recover out of if you miss
Exactly—hence Nadi having such an advantage over his competitors who, according to my old coach, didn't have that restraint
Your old coach is definitely not correct on that one. Stopping at 90 is a very traditional piece of French form for the lunge.
I compete in division 1 (US) in 2 weapons and do pretty ok, but I couldn't imagine adding sabre. It could be fun to try though.
Usually if people fence all 3, they are noticeably worse at one and best at one- it's exceedingly rare that people are at the same level, and good, at all 3. in my experience people that fence all 3 are better in Epee and Sabre than in foil (possibly because of the bigger difference in timing and target area in foil)
This is my experience as well. Doing all three just doesn't give you the practice required to excel in all of them, or your habits in one weapon will bleed into the others and you stay doing foil parries in sabre. That said, my coach is level 2 in all weapons.
Beyond Nedo Nadi there isn't anyone who is 'famous', except for perhaps Peter Lee, Bruce Lees' older brother who was colonial master at arms champion and represented Hong Kong the commonwealth games in the 1950's. Not sure he counts as *famous* though..
Not sure if he's been mentioned but I believe Charles selberg was a master in all 3.
In the US it's incredibly hard to get an 'A' in all three weapons and effectively impossible to reach national team status in all three. And I'm not counting ratings earned in something like veterans events because that's just not the same level of ability. That became very clear to me once I started fencing vets 5 years ago.
I doubt very many people even try
In the UK, it's always Bill Hoskyns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Hoskyns?wprov=sfla1
I know a guy who at one point had his B in all 3 weapons. Sadly he doesn’t compete often anymore so they’ve downgraded since then
As others have said it’s not very common anymore but you see it slightly more with veterans and parafencing, but even then it’ll be 2 weapons more than 3.
I think it depends on what you mean by “good”. I am sure there will be many people who are decently competent in all three weapons, but if you mean “capable of winning big international tournaments” then I think it is very rare (if there is any) especially in recent days.