Ellen Osiier won the first Olympic women’s individual foil fencing title at Paris 1924.
Women’s individual foil fencing was introduced at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris. Denmark’s Ellen Osiier won the inaugural event, making her the first Olympic champion in women’s fencing. She competed during an era when foil was the women’s Olympic fencing discipline, while men already competed in foil, épée and sabre.
Osiier had a strong family connection to sport: she was married to Ivan Osiier, a Danish fencer who competed at multiple Olympics. Her victory helped establish women’s fencing within the Olympic program, although women’s épée and sabre would not be added until much later.
Helene Mayer is a famous Olympic foil champion, but she won women’s foil gold at Berlin 1928 and again at Los Angeles 1932. That later success is why she is sometimes incorrectly identified as the first Olympic women’s foil champion.