Ivan's Story
1929 – 1992
Ivan Lund, from New South Wales, was a member of the first four fencing teams to represent Australia at the Olympic Games. He competed at Helsinki 1952, Melbourne 1956, Rome 1960 and Tokyo 1964. He was the dominant fencer in Australia during the 1950s, winning numerous state and national championships, and gained an impressive record when competing at four British Empire and Commonwealth Games where he won 13 medals, including three golds.
At Helsinki, he competed in the individual and team events in the three fencing disciplines, epee, foil and sabre. By Melbourne, he wound his program back to the epee individual and team competitions. At Rome, he fenced in the individual foil and team epee events. His final Olympics was at Tokyo, where he was the Australian flagbearer at the opening ceremony before winding up his time as a competitor in the epee and foil individual and team events.
His best performances across the four Olympics were progressing to the quarter finals in the individual epee at Helsinki and Melbourne. In 1986, Ivan Lund was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. He remains the only fencer to be accorded that honour.
