Irene Camber

Irene Camber (* 12. February 1926 in Trieste , later Irene Corno ) is a former Italian foil - fencer . She was an Olympic champion , world champion and two-time Italian champion.

Irene Camber was eliminated in her first Olympic participation in London in 1948 in the semifinals. Four years later she won the gold medal at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki in front of the Hungarian defending champion Ilona Elek , making her the first Italian fencing Olympic champion. The team competition was not part of the women's Olympic program until 1960, which is why a world championship was held for this competition in 1952 , in which the Italian team won the bronze medal behind Hungary and France.

At the 1953 World Championships in Brussels, she won the first world title for an Italian female fencer, with the team she received the bronze medal as in the previous year. In 1954 team silver followed behind the Hungarians, in 1955 the team won another bronze medal. The following year, Irene Camber was on hiatus due to pregnancy.

On her comeback she was able to win the bronze medal in the individual ranking at the 1957 World Cup. With the Italian team consisting of Cristiana Bortolotti , Irene Camber, Velleda Cesari , Bruna Colombetti , Leopolda Predaroli and Jenny Zanelli , she won the world championship against the team from the Federal Republic of Germany. Camber, Cesari and Colombetti, along with Claudia Pasini and Antonella Ragno-Lonzi, were part of the team that won bronze for the foil team at the Olympic premiere of the women's competition in Rome in 1960 . Irene Camber won her last major medal at the 1962 World Cup in Buenos Aires. At the Olympic Games in 1964, she and the Italian team lost to the team from the Federal Republic of Germany in the battle for bronze.

Irene Camber, who had worked as a chemist at Montedison in Lissone near Milan during her career , later became the Italian national coach. Twenty years after her own Olympic victory, she led Antonella Ragno to Olympic victory in 1972 .

Web links

• Irene Camber-Corno in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• History of the fencing world championships (women's foil) from sport-komplett.de