Wikipedia

Allan Jay

Allan Louis Neville Jay MBE (30 June 1931 – 5 March 2023) was a British five-time-Olympian foil and épée fencer, and world champion.

Allan Louis Neville Jay
Jay (left) at the 1960 Olympics
Personal information
Born(1931-06-30)30 June 1931
London, England
Died5 March 2023(2023-03-05) (aged 91)
Height175 cm (5 ft 9 in)
Weight80 kg (176 lb)
Sport
Country Great Britain
SportFencing
Event(s)Foil and epee
Medal record
Olympic Games
Representing  Great Britain
Silver medal – second place 1960 Rome Épée
Silver medal – second place 1960 Rome Team épée
British Empire (and Commonwealth) Games
Representing  Australia
Gold medal – first place 1950 Auckland Team épée
Representing  England
Gold medal – first place 1954 Vancouver Team épée
Gold medal – first place 1954 Vancouver Team foil
Bronze medal – third place 1954 Vancouver Foil
Gold medal – first place 1958 Cardiff Team épée
Bronze medal – third place 1958 Cardiff Épée
Gold medal – first place 1962 Perth Team foil
Silver medal – second place 1962 Perth Foil
Gold medal – first place 1966 Kingston Foil
Gold medal – first place 1966 Kingston Team foil

Early life

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Jay was born in London, England, and was Jewish.[1][2] His father died fighting in World War II in 1943.[2] He attended Cheltenham College from 1944 to 1948.[2] He spent much of his childhood in Australia. After 1950 he returned to Britain to study law at the University of Oxford, and later worked as a solicitor while serving as fencing official with the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime. Jay and his wife Carole have two children.[3]

Fencing career

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Jay competed internationally in 1950 for Australia. He was a five times British champion winning five titles at the British Fencing Championships,[4] épée champion in 1952, 1959, 1960, and 1961, and foil champion in 1963.[5] Jay competed in five Olympics in both épée and foil, winning silver medals at the 1960 Rome Olympics in individual and team épée.[6][7] He was Great Britain's flag bearer in the 1964 Olympic Games.[2]

At the World Fencing Championships, Jay won a bronze medal in team foil in 1955, a bronze medal in individual foil in 1957, and a gold medal in individual foil while also winning a silver medal in individual épée in 1959, becoming the first British world champion in foil and the last fencer to win two individual medals in one year.[8][9]

Jay won a gold medal in epee at the 1950 Maccabiah Games.[10] He won three gold medals while fencing both foil and épée (where he won the gold medal in 1953, defeating American Ralph Goldstein in the final) at each of the 1953 Maccabiah Games and the 1957 Maccabiah Games.[10][6][1][11] He is a member of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, having been elected in 1985.[8][2]

Death

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Jay died from COVID-19 on 5 March 2023, at the age of 91.[12][13]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Eight Jewish Athletes at BEG". The Canadian Jewish Chronicle. 30 July 1954.
  2. ^ a b c d e Ron Kaplan (2015). The Jewish Olympics: The History of the Maccabiah Games. Skyhorse Publishing. p. 38. ISBN 978-1-63220-855-2.
  3. ^ "Looking back to our Olympic glory"
  4. ^ "British Champions" (PDF). British Fencing. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  5. ^ W. Rubinstein; Michael A. Jolles (2011). The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History. Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 473. ISBN 978-0-230-30466-6.
  6. ^ a b "Allan Jay". Jewishsports.net. 30 June 1931. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  7. ^ "Olympics Statistics: Allan Jay". databaseolympics.com. Archived from the original on 17 October 2012. Retrieved 19 September 2010.
  8. ^ a b "Allan Jay Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 19 September 2010.
  9. ^ Bob Wechsler (2008). Day by Day in Jewish Sports History. KTAV Publishing House, Inc. p. 197. ISBN 978-0-88125-969-8.
  10. ^ a b "U. S. TENNIS TEAMS TRIUMPH IN ISRAEL; Golden Shares in Maccabiah Doubles Titles With Miss Kanter and Eisenberg". The New York Times.
  11. ^ Joseph M. Siegman (1992). The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. SP Books. p. 102. ISBN 978-1-56171-028-7.
  12. ^ "Allan Jay". Olympedia. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  13. ^ "Allan Jay obituary". The Times. 22 March 2023. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
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