Eugène Olivier

Eugène Olivier was a French fencer, physician and university professor, born in Paris on 17 September 1881 and died on 5 May 1964. A member of the French épée team, he became Olympic épée champion at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. Away from the fencing piste he built a career in anatomy and surgery: he trained at the Hôpital Saint-Louis from 1901, became deputy director of the Paris Faculty of Medicine surgical clinic in 1912, won the Godart Prize for his 1913 thesis on the anatomy and surgery of the thymus, and became a Doctor of Science and Associate Professor of Anatomy in 1923. He taught as Professor of Anatomy from 1946 to 1952, was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1919 and an Officier in 1939, and wrote standard works on human osteology and on the anatomy of the head, neck, abdomen and thorax. His son Gilbert Olivier later became president of the Fédération Sportive de France.