Following from the FIS official web site
Edoardo Mangiarotti 17th Olympic games http://www.federscherma.it/pechino20...sp?i=60993&s=7
Rome - Fencing champion
Edoardo Mangiarotti (89), who won more Olympic titles and World championships than any other fencer in the history of the sport -- 13 Olympic medals (6 gold, 5 silver, 2 bronze) and 24 world championship medals (12 gold, 7 silver, 5 bronze) -- has been thus far at 16 summer Olympic games. The first time was in Berlin 1936 where he earned a team gold [Men's Epee]. He then went to four more Olympic games as an athlete [would have been more if not for WW II had skipping two games], twice as the Italian standard bearer (1956 and 1960). He went to five more Olympic games as an officer of the FIS, the FIE, and as a journalist for the Italian sport newspaper
Gazzetta dello Sport. He attended the last six games as an honored guest of the International Olympic Committee.
Now 89 (his birthday was this past April 7th), he has tickets and accreditation for Beijing. Nothing could stop him: neither the expected suffocating heat, nor the length of the flight, nor the jet lag, not even a stroke which just five months ago had him bedridden without the ability to talk. His willpower, the love for the sport, and the Games have given him the strength to react and recover his mobility and his speech.
After 72 years of Olympic presence, Beijing will be his consecutive 17th seal. There isn't an officer or an athlete who has been to 17 Olympic editions under different roles. This is also a record!
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