Andrea Baldini
Andrea Baldini is an Italian foil fencer, world champion in 2009 and team Olympic champion in 2012.Biography
Baldini won the silver medal at the foil 2006 World Fencing Championships after he lost the final 15–14 versus Peter Joppich.
He repeated the same feat a year later at the 2007 World Championships this time losing 15–9 to Joppich.
On 1 August 2008 it was announced that Baldini had failed a drug test at the 2008 European Fencing Championships, and as a result had to relinquish his potential participation in the Beijing Olympics. Andrea Cassarà went in his place. In April 2009, Baldini's suspension was set by the International Fencing Federation at 6 months retroactively from September 2008 to March 2009. As a result, the Italian foil team from the 2008 European Fencing Championships which Baldini was a member of were required to forfeit their gold medal. After being readmitted to competitions, Baldini won two gold medals at the European Championships in Plovdiv. This time he eliminated Joppich in the quarter-finals.
On 3 October 2009, he finally became World Champion, defeating Andrea Cassarà 15–14 in the quarter-finals, Artem Sedov 15–6 in the semi-finals, and Zhu Jun 15–11 in the final. On the podium, he displayed an Italian flag with lyrics from Bob Dylan's "The Hurricane" written on it.
In July 2010, he won two gold medals at the 2010 European Fencing Championships in Leipzig. In June 2013 he earned a bronze medal at the 2013 European Fencing Championships in Zagreb after he lost his semi-final against Joppich.
