Fencing at the 1952 Summer Olympics – Men's sabre

This was the 12th appearance of the event, which is the only fencing event to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Seven of the eight finalists from 1948 returned (all except American Tibor Nyilas: gold medalist (and 1936 bronze medalist) Aladár Gerevich of Hungary, silver medalist (and 1936 finalist) Vincenzo Pinton of Italy, bronze medalist Pál Kovács of Hungary, fourth-place finisher Jacques Lefèvre of France, fifth-place finisher George Worth of the United States, sixth-place finisher Gastone Darè of Italy, and eighth-place finisher Antonio Haro of Mexico. Gerevich was the reigning (1951) world champion, with Darè (1949) and Jean Levavasseur of France (1950) other recent world champions competing. Kovács was also a world champion, though not so recently—he had won in 1937.[2]

Australia, Guatemala, Japan, Saar, the Soviet Union, Portugal, and Venezuela each made their debut in the men's sabre. Italy and Denmark each made their 10th appearance in the event, tied for most of any nation, each having missed two of the first three events but having appeared every Games since 1908.

The competition format was pool play round-robin, with bouts to five touches. Not all bouts were played in some pools if not necessary to determine advancement. Ties were broken through fence-off bouts ("barrages") in early rounds if necessary for determining advancement. Ties not necessary for advancement were either not broken (if at least one fencer had not finished all bouts in the round-robin) or broken first by touches received and then by touches scored. In the final, ties were broken by barrage if necessary for medal placement but otherwise first by touches received and then by touches scored.[3] The fencers from the top four teams in the team sabre event received a bye in the first round.

• Round 1: There 7 pools of between 7 and 8 fencers each. The top 4 fencers in each pool advanced to the quarterfinals.
• Quarterfinals: There were 5 pools of 8 fencers each. The top 4 fencers in each quarterfinal advanced to the semifinals.
• Semifinals: There were 3 pools of 6 or 7 fencers each. The top 3 fencers in each semifinal advanced to the final.
• Final: The final pool had 9 fencers.

All times are Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3)