Adrianus de Jong

Who was Adrianus de Jong?

Adrianus Egbert Willem "Adriaan" "Arie" de Jong was a Dutch artillery army officer who fenced at five Olympics between 1906 and 1928 and won five bronze medals. This record would not be broken by a Dutchman until shooter Eric Swinkels made his sixth Olympic appearance in 1996.

Between 1910 and 1928 he won eighteen Dutch titles; 9 using the épée; 6 using the sabre; and 3 using the foil. In 1924, he held titles in all three weapons simultaneously.

However, he had his greatest international success with the sabre, where he won the first two World Championships in 1922 and 1923, and Olympic four bronze medals in 1912, 1920, and 1924.

With the épée, he won bronze at the 1912 Olympics and silver at the 1922 world championships.

During the individual sabre event at the 1924 Olympics, he reached the semi-finals against Hungarian Sándor Pósta and was leading by three hits when an audience member fell through his chair. This distracted the jury, who failed to see De Jong's decisive hit. Disrupted, De Jong lost the bout. De Jong eventually finished fifth while Pósta went on to win gold.