The Tip of the Sword Frank Righeimer, Jr., ’25 and the Pinnacle of American Fencing
The 1932 US Olympic Fencing Team
By Eliott Grover ’06 A little after sunset on February 12, 1932, hundreds of specta-
Joseph Levis was the darling of American fencing. He was the
tors spilled into M.I.T.’s Walker Memorial Gymnasium. It was a
star of the team that came up short of a medal at the 1928 Am-
cold night, wet and windy. The temperature hovered cruelly
sterdam Olympics, but their gutsy performance put the Europe-
just above freezing. Rather than gentle snow, the arriving fans
an-dominated fencing world on notice: the United States was
were greeted with piercing rain. They didn’t mind. The oppor-
learning how to swordfight. The upcoming 1932 Games in Los
tunity to see the country’s greatest swordsman was worth the
Angeles offered the hope of a breakthrough in a sport that was
weather.
increasingly drawing national attention. The reason the crowd
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