The Sword was recently contacted by the family of one David Shalit, who believed he was the youngest person ever to judge at an Olympics, when he officiated at the 1948 Games in London, aged just 17. We spoke to Mr Shalit and his daughter Belinda along with fencing historian Malcolm Fare in March 2024 to get the story.
The ages of officials at the Olympics have never been recorded, so it is difficult to prove that there wasn’t anyone younger. However, David’s case is both compelling and fascinating, and an insight into a different world.
The 1948 Olympics, held just after the end of the Second World War, was known as the ‘Austerity Games’. There was an element of rolling up the sleeves and making do about many sports, and the fencing event was organised by a group of men, mostly still with wartime officer titles, based at the London Fencing Club, then the centre of the British fencing universe.
“I left school at 17 and joined the London Fencing Club. That was in 1947, and qualified as a judge quite quickly. And then the Olympics. It was quite a shock. Although of course at 17 one has terrific self confidence, so it wasn’t an unpleasant shock, just a fact of life.” says Shalit, now 93.
The fencing events were held in the Palace Of Engineering in Wembley, a 1920s exhibition venue which survived until the 1970s. Charles de Beaumont, a huge figure in British fencing in the 20th century was both competing and helping to organise the event. “They assumed we would help. It was the first Olympics since the war. Therefore, the first world championships. They were quite desperate to find people who were known to be confident.” All three weapons were contested in both individual and team, although women only participated in individual foil at the time.
Shalit was not expecting to judge. He had been appointed as Assistant Director of Equipment for the Games. “But the whole thing was riddled with pre war politics. The Argentinians particularly whenever they started losing a match they’d protest. That’s how I came into it. There immediately became a shortage of qualified judges. Sure enough, when I arrived the next morning it was: “David where were you? We’ve been looking for you everywhere,” he smiled.
“And I was judging one every day apart from the middle bit when the epee was going on because it was electronic at this point.” The inter-country snickering didn’t stop. “I remember one Frenchman saying, ‘You English know nothing about what you see, but at least you say what you think you see.”
Shalit judged alongside a variety of ex-military men as well as Bobby Winton, another well-known figure in British amateur fencing and brother of the well-known Sir Nicholas Winton.
Shalit was a successful sabre fencer as a young man. He was runner-up to Errol Christies in the 1948 junior sabre championship and the following year in the senior British sabre championship he came second to Roger Tredgold, beating four times British champion Gordon Pilbrow into third place – a remarkable result for an 18-year-old. On 18 June 1949 he came fifth in an international sabre tournament in Antwerp.
At the World Maccabiah Games in Israel, he was in the British team that came first overall, winning the foil and epee team events and coming second at sabre, before injury curtailed his career. Sabre was a tougher, more bruising event in those days, and Shalit would have likely been on the British team for the 1952 Olympics. “My first Junior was in 1947. And I was black and blue by the time we came to the semifinal. I wore a sweater under my jacket to absorb the slashes.”
“The number of people who don’t make it because of injury, is the same number of people who are just not good enough.”
“An awful lot of people get injured in sport and have their careers cut short. In those days, there was no question of training. I now know I should have done much more to build up your muscles around your joints.” The 1952 British team sent Shalit, then in hospital, a ‘sorry you couldn’t be here’ postcard from Helsinki – which sadly got lost in the post.
Shalit was also a contemporary of Gillian Sheen, the only British Olympic fencing gold medal winner, who would fence the bigger and stronger Shalit for tougher practice. “Gill was a lovely person. We had great fun together.”
Shalit received a medal for his judging exploits in 1948, and retains good memories of his fencing days, which have shaped his life. “Fencing was the first thing I was good at, it gave me confidence.” he smiled. ⚔️
Special thanks to Malcolm Fare for his contributions to this piece.