Vladimir Viktorovich Smirnov
Encyclopedia
Vladimir Viktorovich Smirnov ' onMouseout='HidePop("2020")' href="/topics/Rubizhne">Rubizhne
Rubizhne
Rubizhne is a town in Luhansk Oblast of Ukraine. Its population is 61,657 .The town started growing from a train station built in 1904....

, Ukrainian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or in short, the Ukrainian SSR was a sovereign Soviet Socialist state and one of the fifteen constituent republics of the Soviet Union lasting from its inception in 1922 to the breakup in 1991...

 – July 28, 1982, Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

) was a Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 foil fencer.

Smirnov won the gold medal in individual men's foil at the 1980 Summer Olympics
1980 Summer Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament...

. He won the World Championships the following year.

During the 1982 World Championships in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Smirnov was fencing Matthias Behr
Matthias Behr
Matthias Behr is a German foil fencer. He won a gold medal and three silvers at three Olympic Games.Matthias Behr is married to the former foil fencer Zita Funkenhauser...

 of West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....

 on July 19. Behr's blade broke during the action. The broken blade went through the mesh of Smirnov's mask, through his eye orbit
Orbit (anatomy)
In anatomy, the orbit is the cavity or socket of the skull in which the eye and its appendages are situated. "Orbit" can refer to the bony socket, or it can also be used to imply the contents...

, and into his brain. Smirnov died nine days later.

Smirnov was kept on life support until the final touch of the final event was held, when he was disconnected from life support
Life support
Life support, in medicine is a broad term that applies to any therapy used to sustain a patient's life while they are critically ill or injured. There are many therapies and techniques that may be used by clinicians to achieve the goal of sustaining life...

. He was kept alive because no one wished him to die during the Championships.

Smirnov's accident was the driving force behind the significant improvement of safety gear in fencing. Maraging steel
Maraging steel
Maraging steels are steels which are known for possessing superior strength and toughness without losing malleability, although they cannot hold a good cutting edge. Aging refers to the extended heat-treatment process...

 blades (instead of the carbon steel
Plain-carbon steel
Carbon steel, also called plain-carbon steel, is steel where the main interstitial alloying constituent is carbon. The American Iron and Steel Institute defines carbon steel as: "Steel is considered to be carbon steel when no minimum content is specified or required for chromium, cobalt,...

 ones of the day), kevlar
Kevlar
Kevlar is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...

 (or other ballistic nylon
Ballistic nylon
Ballistic nylon is a thick, tough, synthetic nylon fabric used for a variety of applications. Ballistic nylon was originally developed by the DuPont corporation as a material for flak jackets to be worn by World War II airmen...

) in the uniforms, and masks two to three times stronger than the one he wore, and other safety rules, all came about because of his death.
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