Italo Santelli

Italo Santelli (August 15, 1866 – February 8, 1945) was an Italian fencer who is considered to be the "father of modern sabre fencing".

Biography

Italo Santelli was born in Carrodano (La Spezia), Italy in 1866. He studied at famous Italian schools, including the Scuola Magistrale of Rome (Scuola Magistrale Militare di Roma), where he graduated in 1889. In 1896 Santelli was considered an established fencing master, and Santelli moved to Budapest together with brother Otello, also a fencer, and his wife. Santelli had his son, Giorgio, in Hungary in 1897, who always kept his Italian citizenship, before leaving in the USA.

It was in Hungary that Italo Santelli began to create a new style of sabre fencing. The style involved a much more quick defense than classical training called for, and became known as the "modern style" of Santelli.

Santelli displayed this modern style at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris on the Italian team. He came in 6th at the foil competition, but took home a silver medal in sabre, his teammate Antonio Conte taking the gold.