Mexico Quits F.I.E.
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Mexico Quits F.I.E.
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October 29, 1936
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1
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17
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en
MEXICO QUITS F.I.E.
Following a ruling of the Jury of Appeal which decided against the star of the Mexican Olympic fencing delegation, the Chef de Mission announced the withdrawal of Mexico from the Federation Internationale d'Escrime. The incident, the most serious breach of friendly international fencing relations that has occurred in some time, did not reflect credit on the international organization which under the Olympic rules was charged with the responsibility of conducting the games.
Captain Haro Oliva, of the Mexican Army, had compiled an impressive record of victories to reach the semi-final bracket with only one defeat in the first 2 rounds. In the semi-final, he had continued his victorious march, with 6 wins and 1 loss, among his victims being such stars as Cornaggia-Medici, 1932 Olympic champion, who was then in danger of being eliminated, and De Beur of Belgium.
A protest was then entered by the prefect of the Italian team, charging that Haro Oliva's weapon was too long. Upon measurement, this condition was found to be true, as the epee exceeded the maximum overall length by 2 centimetres. There was considerable haggling, and a hurried meeting of the Jury of Appeal was called informally on the spot. This body decided that Haro Oliva would have to fence all his bouts over again.
The Mexican refused. He had purchased the electrical weapon from the official dealer at the Games. The weapon had been measured and tested by the official technical committee, and it bore the official stamp of approval. Haro Oliva agreed to fence his remaining bouts with a shorter weapon, but argued that the record up to that time should stand. He said that he could not be expected to check over the measurements personally after the testing committee had approved the weapon, and that the Jury of Appeal ruling was penalizing him for an error of the weapon tester. The Jury of Appeal was obdurate, however, and ordered him to fence immediately under the penalty of disqualification. Thoroughly unnerved after the prolonged dispute, the Mexican fenced and lost most of the bouts he had previously won, so that he was put out of the competition after he had virtually clinched a place in the final.
That evening, he and his teammate, Jose Martinez-Zorrilla—who will be remembered as an All-American football player and fencing star at Cornell a few years ago—withdrew from the sabre events, and the retirement of Mexico from the F.I.E. was officially announced. The affair created much bitter feeling among the Latin-American nations, particularly as the Jury of Appeal was rumored to have acknowledged, in a communication to the Mexican fencer, that it had made a legal mistake in its ruling, expressed regrets, but refused to alter the result of the competition or to permit him to enter the final pool as an extra man.
