Hungarians dominated early Olympic fencing... or should we say, Hungarian Jews. Four of the five to win the inaugural gold for team sabre in 1908 were Jewish, including previously-profiled Jeno Fuchs. Four years later, Hungary won again, and this time, five of the eight were Jews (Fuchs again was involved).

Italy won the next two cycles, followed by Hungary with seven(!) straight titles. Alas, they came with fewer and fewer Jews, the well obviously drying after World War II. This is when Olympic dominance was taken over by the Soviets... or should we say, Soviet Jews???

The Soviets won four of the next five titles, with three prominent Jews: Yakov Rylsky, Eduard Vinokurov, and Mark Rakita (the most decorated of the trio with two golds and a silver, plus an individual silver). Others won medals in epee and foil (sabre is the original fencing event, so we'll stick to that, or we'd run out of space).

Heck, even as the Soviet Union was dissolving, the Unified Team-cum-Russia won three straight sabre golds, headlined by Jews Vadim Gudzeit and Sergey Sharikov.

So how do we explain this Jewish fencing dominance?

We can't.