Paul Anspach

Paul Anspach (April 1, 1882 - August 28, 1981) was a Belgian hockey player who was most notable for his career as an épée and foil fencer.

Hockey career
Anspach played for the Belgian National Team at the 1911 European Championship. He later appeared for the French National Team at the 1912 LIHG Championship, where foreign players were permitted.

At the club level, he played for Brussels IHC in the Belgian Championship.

Fencing career
Anspach was captain of the Belgian épée team from 1909 to 1928. At the 1908 Summer Olympics, he won a silver medal in the team épée event and placed 5th overall in individual épée. In the sabre competition, he was stopped in the 2nd round.

At the 1912 Summer Olympics, he captured gold medals in both the individual and team épée competitions.In the individual event, he won 6 of his 7 matches. He finished in 12th place in the individual foil event.

In 1913 he was one of the founders of the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime (International Fencing Association, or FIE). He served as its Secretary-General, before serving as its President from 1932 until 1939 (when it was suspended for the duration of World War II), and then from 1946 until 1950.

The Olympics were not held in 1916 because of World War I. At the 1920 Summer Olympics, Anspach won a silver medal in the team épée competition. In the 1924 Summer Olympics, he won a silver medal in team épée and finished 9th overall in individual épée.

In 1951 Anspach became the first recipient of the Taher Pacha Trophy (founded in 1950 by H.E. Mohammed Taher Pacha, member of the IOC for Egypt. It is to awarded annually by the IOC to an Athlete whose "general merit and career justify the award of a special distinction in the name of Olympism.")

In 1976 Anspach was awarded the Silver Medal of the Olympic Order. For the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, the Comités d'organisation des Jeux Olympiques (COJO) invited Anspach to take part in the ceremony for the transmission of the Flame from Athens to Ottawa. His doctors felt that the journey from Brussels to Athens and back would be too tiring for the ninety-year-old Belgian, who said he was "honored and moved by this very special invitation"

Other notes
Anspach was Jewish and began his athletic career as a football player.

He contributed to the formation of the Belgian Olympic Committee in 1906.

In 1914 he sat as Secretary at the Paris Olympic Congress, where he dealt with the technical side of the Congress. In 1914, along with the Marquess of Chasseloup-Laubat he drew up the rules for Fencing as an Olympic sport