Antonio CONTE

As a so-called fencing master, the only kind of professional athletes officially allowed at the early Olympic Games, Antonio Conte took the gold medal in the 1900 sabre competition, winning all his bouts. Having enrolled in the Maddaloni Battalion with the rank of sergeant, Conte perfected his fencing technique at Modena Military School. He moved to Milan to teach fencing, then to Paris after leaving the army because he was forbidden from going to the French capital to take part in a tournament. In 1904 he went to Spain, then he went back to Paris with his wife Sofia, a waitress who saved his life when someone tried to poison him. At 80 years old, after the death of his wife, he went back to his native Minturno. He left an estate worth 300 million lire consisting of property, land and jewellery, to the hospital in his hometown.