Five Paris Olympics storylines to know, from safety to Simone Biles
The Paris Olympics are approaching. Here’s what you need to know about the first post-pandemic games.
Here’s what you need to know about fencing at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
When did fencing become an Olympic sport?
Fencing made its Olympic debut at the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896. It is one of five sports that are included in each Summer Games. The other four are track & field, cycling, gymnastics and swimming.
Only three American fencers have won gold medals.
How Does Olympic Fencing Work?
Competitions are represented by blades – foil, epi and saber. Foil and Ebi are sharp weapons and fencers use a thrusting motion to strike. A saber is a short blade and fencers use a slashing motion to score.
Foil and saber fencers wear electrically conductive jackets to define the scoring area—the torso in foil and the upper half of the body in sabre. Epee fencers do not need to wear a jacket because the target area is the entire body.
In individual competition, matches are divided into three periods, each lasting three minutes. The first fencer to score 15 touches on his opponent wins the match. In the team competition, there are nine individual matches, each lasting three minutes or until five touches are scored. The team won the match with the highest score.
A total of 212 fencers will compete in the Paris Games, half of them men and half of them women.
Who are America’s best team fencers?
Lee Kiefer, who won gold in the women’s foil at the Tokyo Games, will be a strong contender to defend the medal again. Her husband, Gerek Meinhardt, is a two-time Olympic bronze medalist in team men’s foil.
Nick Itkin won silver in men’s foil at the 2023 World Fencing Championships and is currently ranked world No. 1 in men’s foil.
What is the international landscape in Olympic fencing?
Italy, France and Hungary led the long European dominance of the sport. But Asian nations and the United States are expected to break through in recent Olympics and medal again.
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