FONST, THE LEFT-HANDED «HORS CLASSE»

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FONST, THE LEFT-HANDED «HORS CLASSE»

Apr 18, 2024

Ramón Fonst Segundo was not yet 17 years old when he made his debut in the Games of the II Olympiad in Paris. That event was held despite the controversies between Pierre de Coubertin, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Alfred Picard, General Commissioner of the Universal Exposition of Paris. Pierre wanted to organize the 1900 Olympic Games and Alfred was in favor of “international physical exercise and sports competitions” during the Universal Exposition.

Fonst was left-handed. Of left-handed people a little bit of everything is said. From that they are rare and die young, to that they have unique abilities inherited from the need to shine from difference. And he was unique. A shooter “hors classe” (out of class).

Ramon Fonst was born on July 31, 1883 and when night fell on June 15, 1900 in Europe, he was already a double Olympic medalist. He won the title in the amateur epee category defeating Frenchman Louis Perrée and the silver in the showdown between the best masters and the best amateurs of the competition, only edged out by his own master Albert Ayat.

Fonst was a child; the child prodigy of world fencing. He had grown up in France, as a person and as an athlete, but insisted since then on representing his homeland: Cuba. Thus, at the age of 16, he became not only the first Olympic champion in history for this island, but also the first in Latin America and the Caribbean. Dancing in the house of the spinning top.

Fencing was one of the most popular sports in France and was the Olympic discipline with the largest number of participants in 1900. There were 258 athletes, of whom only 47 were foreigners. In epee, the weapon in which Fonst ventured, 102 athletes were registered, 91 locals.

The memories that survive the passage of time show that young Ramón had to defeat his father in a fencing duel for him to accept that the teenager was good enough to fight in the Olympics. And once there, he had to prevail over the frank and potent hostility of the judges.

SUPERB ACHIEVEMENTS

Fonst was born to do sport and to make history from its practice. Throughout his life, he not only gave prestige to the world of fencing, but also acted with success in other disciplines such as the so-called French Boxing, Cycling and Shooting. He remained active for 40 years.

Until his last competition, which he disputed just a few months before his 55th birthday, he was reaping success, fame and making history for Cuban sport, a country he represented with great pride.

Among his most notable feats are his victories during the World Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. On that occasion, he faced and defeated nearly 100 opponents to win all the titles in all weapons: epee, foil and sabre.

The press of the time, surrendered to his numbers and his mastery, once again catalogued him as something extraordinary and out of the ordinary.

In 1924, at the age of 41, Fonst returned to compete in the Olympic Games in the city that had seen him become the first Latin American champion in this type of tournament: Paris. In that event he failed to advance to the semifinals, but the result did not dampen his perseverance. Two years later, he added three gold medals in the individual sabre, foil and epee events at the First Central American and Caribbean Games (Mexico 1926), as well as another team title in foil.

His farewell to major competitions took place at the IV Central American and Caribbean Games, where, at the age of 55, he closed his sporting career in style with a scepter and a silver medal as a member of the epee and foil teams, respectively.

The majority of the references give a total of 125 medals and 25 trophies, among them five Olympic medals (gold and silver in Paris 1900 and three golds in San Luis 1904), which earned him immortalization in the Hall of Fame of the International Fencing Federation and in his honor was created by the Amateur Fencing Federation of Cuba the Order of Merit for Fencing Ramon Fonst.

HUELLAS OF FONST

In Havana a multipurpose hall bears his name and since 1966 the Ramon Fonst in Memoriam International Tournaments have been held in his honor.

It is true that in recent times the Cuban swordsmen have been losing ground at the international level. Their scarce participation for economic reasons in the main tournaments of the world circuit constitutes one of the main difficulties for the rebirth of this discipline.

Ramon Fonst de Cuba. (Crédito: Suministrada por Lylian Cid) — _{^{Ramon Fonst of Cuba. (Credit: Provided by Lilyan Cid)}}

For this 2024 there were expectations for Paris, but unfortunately the island has been left without options after not reaching any of the quotas it sought in the Pan American Championships hosted by San Jose, Costa Rica. The last Cuban participant in Olympic events will continue to be sablista Yohandry Iriarte, who was in Rio 2016.

For several decades, Cuba was in the orbit of this sport at the global level. It rubbed shoulders with royalty and was a power. Many of the great achievements of Cuban specialists found primary source of inspiration in the “touchés” of Fonst, who marked an era with his results, and marked a path with his talent, quality and consecration to a sport discipline that was prestigious with his excellent performances in various competitive scenarios.

Known as El Zurdo or El Nunca Segundo, he died in Havana in 1959, when he was president of the Cuban Olympic Committee.

If there is one anecdote that perfectly reflects the global respect for the Cuban exceptional, it is the one told during the filming back in 1935 of a scene from the movie “Captain Blood”. The actor Errol Flynn, a great admirer of his style, was in a duel to the death with the villain personified by Basil Rathbone, when the latter failed pitifully in one of his thrusts. Seeing what happened, Flynn, dead laughing, told him: “If you do that against Ramon Fonst you are a dead man”.

^{BY: LILYAN CID}

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