Matthias Behr suffered for a long time from the consequences of the tragic fencing accident of July 19, 1982, which resulted in the death of his opponent. Only now, after 40 years, has the Olympic champion “found his peace” – and his sport has also changed as a result of the drama in Rome.
Matthias Behr, who had won team gold at the Olympic Games in Montreal six years earlier, started on July 19 with the aim of leading his team to the semi-finals of the World Cup in Rome. In the round of the last eight teams, there was a duel with the then dominant man of this sport: Vladimir Viktorovich Smirnov from Rubischne in Ukraine, who competed for the USSR at the time.
Eight days in the hospital
For Behr it was not only a special sporting duel, he also counted Smirnow among his personal friends. During the fight, Behr’s blade broke and pierced Smirnov’s mask through his eye and into his brain. The 1980 Olympic champion in Moscow was immediately taken to a hospital in Rome but died eight days later, leaving behind his wife Emma and two children.
After this tragedy, nothing was the same for Behr either. The fencing trainer legend at the time, Emil Beck, drove to the Bavarian Forest with Behr for five days after the news of his death in order to somehow come to terms with what had happened. But feelings of guilt and depression accompanied him for decades.
“sound of blade still in ear”
And that sound of the blade breaking – “I still have that in my head”Behr told the Stuttgarter Zeitung 30 years later. “This July 19 is as present as if it were yesterday.” His wife, former world-class fencer Zita Funkenhauser, said: “I quickly realized how much this accident affected Matthias. That’s his life’s work. The fact that Matthias later fell ill with severe depression was certainly one of the reasons for that.”
For years, Behr tried to get in touch with his friend’s widow, who was pregnant at the time, after the accident. It didn’t work. Again and again he wrote long letters – no reaction. It was not until 2017 that they met again in Kyiv. At the time, Behr happily reported that Smirnov’s family had welcomed him very warmly.
Refugees from Smirnov’s family accepted
In his own words, he finally found his peace this year. At Emma Smirnow’s request, he and his wife took in relatives of the Smirnow family who were fleeing the Russian war of aggression in their house in Tauberbischofsheim. Behr was glad he could help and “finally giving something back” could, he told Bunte magazine. “I’m finally reconciled with my fate, I’ve come full circle.”
In the four decades before, Behr had repeatedly made do with speaking openly about his depression (“II got so much encouragement from people with similar problems, I was happy about that“) and to say to yourself: “I guess I was somehow destined to ensure safety in fencing. That was the only way I could deal with it.”
Security measures are still effective today
After the accident, it took several years for the new safety measures to be implemented. But since the mid-1980s, fencing has only been done with the unbreakable and carbon-free maraging blade, the safety vests are much more stable, and the masks are made of steel. According to Spiegel, there had already been at least four deaths in fencing before July 19, 1982. There hasn’t been an accident of this magnitude in 40 years.