In athletic terms the crime he committed was a total murder.” Every other member of his team, including alternate Vladimir Shmelev, is right-handed.) Kerekes again: “Calculated cheating. He claimed innocence.” (According to By the Sword, Onischenko later argues the rigged sword isn’t his, an alibi that stretches credulity like it’s taffy. “He is almost collapsed in his chair as if the world had collapsed around him,” Kerekes says. The sword, its grip laid bare, rests on a table. The scene is preserved in his mind’s eye: He walks into his cramped office, and the three-member jury d’appel is seated in front of him. Sandy Kerekes, a Hungarian-born Montrealer, is the modern pentathlon competition director. In the one-page judgment of the jury d’appel, which includes Debeur, the rigged épée is “incontestablement un cas de fraude. He can register a hit with impunity and conserve energy for the next three days of competition.
Onischenko simply has to press the button with fourth and pinky fingers to close the electrical circuit, turning on the light. Inside the custom-made grip is a metal button. Glen-Haig strides towards the pistes and collars the head of the fencing competition, telling him confiscation of the sword and a point deduction are insufficient penalties.Ī hole has been drilled in the grip, which has been covered by a snug-fitting chamois cloth. The woman, Bacon’s hostess, is Mary Glen-Haig, a formidable figure in fencing, a daughter of a 1908 Olympic fencer, a four-time Olympian herself and a future member of the International Olympic Committee. He turns to the woman seated next to him, a family friend, and announces that Onischenko is cheating. Twelve-year-old Nicholas Bacon, who is awaiting surgery for a brain tumor, has been watching the British matches intently. The Montreal Games will become notorious for their staggering cost overruns, but 25 bucks is a wise investment even if the merciless gaze of a young fencing enthusiast already had detected chicanery. At 10:40 he files the protest to the governing body, the Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne. Proudfoot begins writing an official protest by hand to argue that Onischenko’s faulty sword constitutes deliberate cheating, which should result in disqualification. The British team considers the penalty a slap on the wrist, which, in its view, is more contact than Onischenko ever made with Fox or Parker.
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