Career
In 1972, he was awarded the French Legion of Honor. In 2001, the FIE listed the qualities that made Christian d'Oriola "Fencer of the 20th Century": "The speed of his hand, his prodigious technique, his light but devastatingly quick footwork, his instantaneous reactions, his inventiveness and his ability to adapt perfectly from "academic" (non-electric) to electric foil—all this means that Christian d’Oriola remains a model for his successors past and present."
Noting the aesthetic component of his fencing, the FIE stated: "Christian d’Oriola was fencing perfection personified as no-one else has ever been…".