Both were Olympic winners and probably the biggest stars in their sport. Their match at the World Cup in Rome had high expectations. But no one expected what had happened. Behr’s blade penetrated Smirnov’s mask directly into his eye, injuring his brain.
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He fought for his life in the hospital for ten days, but eventually lost his fight. “Vladimir was my friend, just as I was an Olympic champion and world champion, to me a swordsman. “I was paralyzed by horror as I sat there with a blood-stained blade in my hand,” Behr described the moment of horror.
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In 1982 Matthias Behr’s foil blade broke during a match. It penetrates the head of his opponent Vladimir Smirnov and kills him. 40 years later, the German is able to give something back: He complies with a widow’s request and takes in Ukrainian refugees.https://t.co/WyUHf1rh0Z
— Philippe Fadeau (@FadeauPhilippe) May 12, 2022
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Only after 35 long years was he able to meet the widow of the deceased swordsman. He has been in contact with Emma Smirnov ever since. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she asked him for asylum for her and her relatives. Behr complied with her request.
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On this day in 1954, Vladimir Smirnov was born in Rubizhne – the champion of the 1980 Olympic Games individual rapier. He died after a fight on July 20, 1982 with Matthias Behr from Germany. The opponent had a broken rapier, a fragment of which pierced the mask and injured his brain through his eye. pic.twitter.com/nRFQboUT1M
– Ukrainian magazine (@falledlenin) May 5, 2021
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The family was thus able to flee via Warsaw and Würzburg to Tauberbischofsheim in Baden-Württemberg and stay in the house of Matthias Behr, who, in his words, finally came to terms with his fate. “The circle is closing for me,” he added.
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