PARIS (AP) — The fans at fencing are among the loudest and most passionate at the Paris Olympics, especially when France is challenging for a gold medal. They usually leave disappointed.
Italy overcame a passionate “Marseillaise”-singing crowd at the Grand Palais to hand France its fourth fencing silver medal of the Games in the women's team epee Tuesday.
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Italy's Alberta Santuccio, second right, celebrates with her teammates Rossella Fiamingo, second left, Giulia Rizzi, left, and Mara Navarria after winning the women's team Epee final match against France during the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Grand Palais, Friday, June 7, 2019, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
PARIS (AP) — The fans at fencing are among the loudest and most passionate at the Paris Olympics, especially when France is challenging for a gold medal. They usually leave disappointed.
France's Auriane Mallo Breton, right, competes with Italy's Mara Navarria in the women's team Epee final match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Italy's Alberta Santuccio celebrates after winning the women's team Epee final match against France at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Italy's Alberta Santuccio celebrates after winning the women's team Epee final match against France during the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Grand Palais, Friday, June 7, 2019, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Italy's Alberta Santuccio, second right, celebrates with her teammates Rossella Fiamingo, second left, Giulia Rizzi, left, and Mara Navarria after winning the women's team Epee final match against France during the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Grand Palais, Friday, June 7, 2019, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Alberta Santuccio got the winning touch for Italy in overtime against France's Auriane Mallo-Breton to complete a hard-fought 30-29 win for gold. It was the second time that Mallo-Breton lost a Paris Olympic final by a single point after a 13-12 loss to Hong Kong's Vivian Kong Man Wai in the individual epee Saturday.
French fencers are 0-3 in finals against non-French opponents at the 2024 Olympics, with those losses coming in epee events. The host nation's only gold came when Manon Apithy-Brunet beat her teammate Sara Balzer in the women's saber final on Monday.
“If you look at the (epee) finals, of course we seem to be losing, but we're in the finals all the same,” Mallo-Breton said Tuesday through an interpreter. “I think that in the teams, there are possibilities to go and get some wonderful medals, and we hope that the other (French) teams will be able to go and do that, so we're going to be supporting them.”
Team fencing involves squad members fencing one-on-one in a rotating sequence that means everyone gets to face each opponent once. Despite the overtime loss, Mallo-Breton was still France's standout in the final with a combined record of 14-10 against all opponents.
Italy has one gold, one silver and one bronze medal so far in fencing. Five more team events remain.
Polish fencer Aleksandra Jarecka was shaking on the floor with emotion after winning her team bronze. Jarecka tied the score with less than three seconds to go and then won the tiebreaker point for a 32-31 overtime win against China.
Just before that was an unexpected twist when an apparent glitch with the scoring system seemed to give Poland an extra point in the last minute, only to take it away. It prompted the referee to study video of recent points in a bid to clear up exactly what the state of play was for the final seconds.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
Poland's Renata Knapic Miazga, left, competes with China's Sun Yiwen in the women's team Epee bronze final match against China's Yu Sihan at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
France's Auriane Mallo Breton, right, competes with Italy's Mara Navarria in the women's team Epee final match at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Italy's Alberta Santuccio celebrates after winning the women's team Epee final match against France at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Tuesday, July 30, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Italy's Alberta Santuccio celebrates after winning the women's team Epee final match against France during the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Grand Palais, Friday, June 7, 2019, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Italy's Alberta Santuccio, second right, celebrates with her teammates Rossella Fiamingo, second left, Giulia Rizzi, left, and Mara Navarria after winning the women's team Epee final match against France during the 2024 Summer Olympics at the Grand Palais, Friday, June 7, 2019, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
A key employee who labeled an experimental submersible unsafe prior to its last, fatal voyage began his testimony Tuesday before U.S. Coast Guard investigators.
David Lochridge is one of the most anticipated witnesses to appear before a commission trying to determine what caused the Titan to implode en route to the wreckage of the Titanic last year, killing all five on board.
Lochridge is former operations director for OceanGate, the company that owned the Titan and brought it on several dives to the Titanic going back to 2021. He claimed several years ago that he was fired for raising safety concerns.
His testimony began a day after other witnesses painted a picture of a troubled company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.
Among those killed was Stockton Rush, co-founder of OceanGate. The company, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion.
OceanGate's former engineering director, Tony Nissen, kicked off Monday's testimony, telling investigators that he felt pressured to get the vessel ready to dive and refused to pilot it for a journey several years before Titan's last trip.
“‘I’m not getting in it,’” Nissen said he told Rush.
When asked if there was pressure to get Titan into the water, Nissen responded, “100%.”
But asked if he felt that the pressure compromised safety decisions and testing, Nissen paused, then replied, “No. And that’s a difficult question to answer, because given infinite time and infinite budget, you could do infinite testing.”
OceanGate's former finance and human resources director, Bonnie Carl, testified Monday that Lochridge had characterized the Titan as “unsafe.” Lochridge is expected to provide more perspective on what caused the implosion.
Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan's unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.
During the submersible's final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about the Titan's depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if the Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.
One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” according to a visual re-creation presented earlier in the hearing.
When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said.
Scheduled to appear later in the hearing are OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Sohnlein and former scientific director, Steven Ross, according to a list compiled by the Coast Guard. Numerous guard officials, scientists, and government and industry officials are also expected to testify. The U.S. Coast Guard subpoenaed witnesses who were not government employees, said Coast Guard spokesperson Melissa Leake.
Among those not on the hearing witness list is Rush’s widow, Wendy Rush, the company’s communications director. Asked about her absence, Leake said the Coast Guard does not comment on the reasons for not calling specific individuals to a particular hearing during ongoing investigations. She said it’s common for a Marine Board of Investigation to “hold multiple hearing sessions or conduct additional witness depositions for complex cases.”
OceanGate has no full-time employees at this time but will be represented by an attorney during the hearing, the company said in a statement. The company said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began.
The time frame for the investigation was initially a year, but the inquiry has taken longer. The ongoing Marine Board of Investigation is the highest level of marine casualty investigation conducted by the Coast Guard. When the hearing concludes, recommendations will be submitted to the Coast Guard’s commandant. The National Transportation Safety Board is also conducting an investigation.
Coast Guard's Thomas Whalen, left, speaks with Nicole Emmons, right, during a break for the Titan marine board formal hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)
Coast Guard's Thomas Whalen speaks with another Coast Guard member during a break for the Titan marine board formal hearing inside the Charleston County Council Chambers, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)
Jason Neubauer, board chairman, of the investigative board for the Titan marine board formal hearing pauses for a moment of silence inside the Charleston County Council Chambers Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)
Coast Guard members of the investigative board for the Titan marine board formal hearing pause for a moment of silence inside the Charleston County Council Chambers Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)
Coast Guard members of the investigative board for the Titan marine board formal hearing take an oath inside the Charleston County Council Chambers Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Mic Smith)
A key employee who called the Titan unsafe will testify before the Coast Guard
FILE - This undated image provided by OceanGate Expeditions in June 2021 shows the company's Titan submersible. (OceanGate Expeditions via AP, File)
A key employee who called the Titan unsafe will testify before the Coast Guard
