Ramón Fonst

Ramón Fonst Segundo, who lived from 31 August 1883 to 9 September 1959, was a Cuban fencer who competed in the early twentieth century and was born and died in Havana. He was the first non-European and the only Hispanic American to win an Olympic fencing title. Although born in Cuba he spent most of his youth in France, where he learned fencing, and at sixteen he entered the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, winning the men's épée final to become the first Cuban and first Latin American Olympic medalist, then taking silver in the amateurs-masters épée. At the 1904 Games in St. Louis he won three gold medals within two days, retaining the épée title, adding the foil title and winning the team foil with Manuel Díaz and Albertson Van Zo Post. Cuba did not compete at the Summer Olympics again until 1924 in Paris, where Fonst, aged 40, reached the épée semi-final. He also competed at the Central American and Caribbean Games of 1926, 1930 and 1938.