Allan Jay

{{Short description|British fencer (1931–2023)}} {{Use British English|date=February 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}} {{Infobox sportsperson | name = Allan Jay | image = Allan Jay, Giuseppe Delfino, Bruno Habārovs 1960 Olympics.jpg | imagesize = 250px | caption = Jay (left) at the 1960 Olympics | nationality = British (English) | birth_date = {{birth date|1931|6|30|df=yes}} | birth_place = London, England | death_date = {{death date and age|2023|3|5|1931|6|30|df=yes}} | death_place = | height = 175 cm | weight = 80 kg | sport = Fencing | event = foil, Épée | club = Salle Paul Fenicng Club | medaltemplates = {{MedalOlympics}} {{MedalCountry|{{GBR2}}}} {{MedalSilver| 1960 Rome | Épée}} {{MedalSilver| 1960 Rome | Team épée}} {{MedalCompetition|British Empire (and Commonwealth) Games}} {{MedalCountry | {{AUS}} }} {{MedalGold| 1950 Auckland | Team épée}} {{MedalCountry | {{ENG}} }} {{MedalGold| 1954 Vancouver | Team épée}} {{MedalGold| 1954 Vancouver | Team foil}} {{MedalBronze| 1954 Vancouver | Foil}} {{MedalGold| 1958 Cardiff | Team épée}} {{MedalBronze| 1958 Cardiff | Épée}} {{MedalGold| 1962 Perth | Team foil}} {{MedalSilver| 1962 Perth | Foil}} {{MedalGold| 1966 Kingston | Foil}} {{MedalGold| 1966 Kingston | Team foil}} | show-medals = yes }}

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

== Early life == Jay was born in London, England, and was Jewish.<ref name="google1804">{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=883&dat=19540730&id=6vFOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=e0wDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1804,1911973 |title=Eight Jewish Athletes at BEG |work=The Canadian Jewish Chronicle |date= 30 July 1954}}</ref><ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite book|author=Ron Kaplan|title=The Jewish Olympics: The History of the Maccabiah Games|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SbVGCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT38|year=2015|publisher=Skyhorse Publishing|isbn=978-1-63220-855-2|page=38}}</ref> His father died fighting in World War II in 1943.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> He attended Cheltenham College from 1944 to 1948.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> 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.<ref>[https://www.thejc.com/lifestyle/features/looking-back-to-our-olympic-glory-1.61874 "Looking back to our Olympic glory"]</ref>

==Fencing career== Jay competed internationally in 1950 for Australia. He was a five times British champion winning five titles at the British Fencing Championships,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishfencing.com/uploads/files/british_champions.pdf |title=British Champions |website=British Fencing |access-date=28 October 2022}}</ref> épée champion in 1952, 1959, 1960, and 1961, and foil champion in 1963.<ref>{{cite book|author1=W. Rubinstein|author2=Michael A. Jolles|title=The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_T_HCg17ufIC&pg=PA473|year=2011|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=978-0-230-30466-6|page=473}}</ref> Jay competed in five Olympics in both épée and foil, winning silver medals at the 1960 Rome Olympics in individual and team épée.<ref name="jewishsports1">{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/AllanJay.htm |title=Allan Jay |publisher=Jewishsports.net |date=30 June 1931 |access-date=26 May 2014 |archive-date=12 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512121418/http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/AllanJay.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="databaseolympics">{{cite web|url=http://www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=JAYALL01 |title=Olympics Statistics: Allan Jay |access-date=19 September 2010 |work=databaseolympics.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017225141/http://www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=JAYALL01 |archive-date=17 October 2012 }}</ref> He was Great Britain's flag bearer in the 1964 Olympic Games.<ref name=autogenerated1 />

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.<ref name=sr>{{cite web |url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ja/allan-jay-1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417162638/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ja/allan-jay-1.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=17 April 2020 |title=Allan Jay Olympic Results |access-date=19 September 2010 |work=sports-reference.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Bob Wechsler|title=Day by Day in Jewish Sports History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dAq4TGQsWwwC&pg=PA197|year=2008|publisher=KTAV Publishing House, Inc.|isbn=978-0-88125-969-8|page=197}}</ref>

Jay won a gold medal in epee at the 1950 Maccabiah Games.<ref name="auto">{{Cite news|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/09/26/84425427.html?pdf_redirect=true&site=false|title=U. S. TENNIS TEAMS TRIUMPH IN ISRAEL; Golden Shares in Maccabiah Doubles Titles With Miss Kanter and Eisenberg|work=The New York Times }}</ref> 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.<ref name="auto"/><ref name="jewishsports1"/><ref name="google1804"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Joseph M. Siegman|title=The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qpiphgls99IC&pg=PA102|year=1992|publisher=SP Books|isbn=978-1-56171-028-7|page=102}}</ref> He is a member of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, having been elected in 1985.<ref name=sr/><ref name=autogenerated1 />

His last Commonwealth Games appearance came when Jay represented the England team<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000769/19660615/138/0019 |title=Jay for fifth Empire Games |work=Coventry Evening Telegraph |date=15 June 1966 |p=19 |via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription |access-date=18 December 2025}}</ref> at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica, where he participated in the foil events.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://thecgf.com/results/games/3036/19/all |title=England Kingston 1966 |website=Commonwealth Games Federation |access-date=17 December 2025 |archive-date=18 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018082917/https://thecgf.com/results/games/3036/19/all |url-status=dead }}</ref> He won double gold medal in the individual foil and team foil, the latter with Graham Paul and Bill Hoskyns.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gbrathletics.com/commonwealth/fencing.htm |title=Commonwealth Games Medallists - Fencing |website=GBR Athletics |access-date=18 December 2025}}</ref>

== Death == Jay died from COVID-19 on 5 March 2023, at the age of 91.<ref>{{cite web |title=Allan Jay |url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/22153 |website=Olympedia |access-date=21 March 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Allan Jay obituary |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/allan-jay-obituary-0dfhc83jn |access-date=24 March 2023 |work=The Times |date=22 March 2023}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist|2}}

==External links== {{Commons category}} *{{cite web|url=http://www.allcompetitions.com/fen_og1.htm |title=Olympic results |access-date=23 September 2013 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080827202118/http://www.allcompetitions.com/fen_og1.htm |archive-date=27 August 2008 }} * [http://www.gbrathletics.com/commonwealth/fencing.htm Commonwealth Games medals] * [http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/AllanJay.htm Jewish Sports bio] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512121418/http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/AllanJay.htm |date=12 May 2013 }} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20160303193519/http://www.jewsinsports.org/olympics.asp?ID=43 Jews in Sports bio] * [https://books.google.com/books?id=lvszXWxqAR4C&dq=%22allan+jay%22+gold+-kellogg&pg=RA1-PA75 Jewish Sports Legends bio] * {{Team GB|79KwpYO5ky1HemCwYhkeGm}} * {{Olympics.com|allan-louis-neville-jay}} * {{CGF profile}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jay, Allan}} Category:1931 births Category:2023 deaths Category:British male fencers Category:Australian male fencers Category:Jewish épée fencers Category:Jewish foil fencers Category:English Jews Category:Olympic fencers for Great Britain Category:Fencers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Category:Fencers at the 1956 Summer Olympics Category:Fencers at the 1960 Summer Olympics Category:Fencers at the 1964 Summer Olympics Category:Fencers at the 1968 Summer Olympics Category:Olympic silver medallists for Great Britain Category:Olympic medalists in fencing Category:Fencers at the 1950 British Empire Games Category:Fencers at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Category:Fencers at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Category:Fencers at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Category:Fencers at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Category:Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Australia Category:Commonwealth Games gold medallists for England Category:Commonwealth Games silver medallists for England Category:Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:Fencers from London Category:International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inductees Category:Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics Category:Jewish British sportspeople Category:Maccabiah Games medalists in fencing Category:Maccabiah Games gold medalists for Great Britain Category:Competitors at the 1950 Maccabiah Games Category:Competitors at the 1953 Maccabiah Games Category:Competitors at the 1957 Maccabiah Games Category:Commonwealth Games gold medallists in fencing Category:Commonwealth Games silver medallists in fencing Category:Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in fencing Category:People educated at Cheltenham College Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford Category:English solicitors Category:English Olympic competitors Category:Medallists at the 1950 British Empire Games Category:Medallists at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Category:Medallists at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Category:Medallists at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Category:Medallists at the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games Category:Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in England Category:20th-century Australian sportsmen Category:World Fencing Championships medalists