Vladimir Viktorovich Smirnov

Tombstone Vladimir Smirnov

Vladimir Smirnov ( Russian Владимир Викторович Смирнов ., Scientific transliteration Vladimir Viktorovič Smirnov * 20th May 1954 in Rubizhne , Luhansk Oblast , USSR ; † 27. July 1982 in Rome ) was a Soviet fencers , Olympic champion and three-time world champion.

successes

In 1977 Smirnow won bronze at the world championships in Buenos Aires with the foil team, as well as in 1978 at the world championships in Hamburg . In 1979 he was team world champion in Melbourne . At the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow , Smirnov was Olympic champion in the foil competition and also won a silver medal with the Soviet foil team and a bronze medal with the sword team. A year later he became world champion both individually and with the team in Clermont-Ferrand .

death

During the World Fencing Championships in Rome in 1982 , Smirnow met the German fencer Matthias Behr on July 19 . During the fight, Behr's blade broke and pierced his brain through Smirnov's mask. Smirnov died eight days later in a hospital in Rome. He left a wife and two children. The circumstances of his death resulted in stricter standards in the FIE regarding the protection of fencers. For the blades, maraging steel was prescribed instead of the carbon-based alloys previously used, and the masks became significantly more stable. Since then, clothing has to be made of Dyneema or other inhibiting nylon fibers.

Web links

• Volodymyr Smyrnov in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• History of the World Fencing Championships (men's foil) from sport-komplett.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christiane Moravetz: One fatal stab and many wounds. FAZ , March 26, 2004, accessed on May 2, 2013 . 
2. ↑ Oskar Beck: When an Olympic champion accidentally stabs a friend. Die Welt , July 17, 2016, accessed July 18, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Dominik Ignée: The feeling of powerlessness persists even after 30 years. Stuttgarter Zeitung , July 9, 2012, accessed June 4, 2016 .