The predictable, if not expected, consequence of the International Fencing Federation’s (FIE) decision to reinstate Russian and Belarusian athletes is that the German federation has decided not to organize the women’s foil World Cup event scheduled for early May in Tauberbischofsheim. The announcement was made on Thursday 16 March by the president of the federation, Claudia Bokel, former IOC member of the Athletes’ Commission. The 2004 Olympic vice-champion explained that the Tauberbischofsheim stage should have been “one of the first to have to apply the decision” taken by the FIE on March 10 at its extraordinary congress. Claudio Bokel explains that the German federation (DFeB) respects the FIE’s decision, but wants to “send a clear signal.” It insists: “We would have liked a different outcome and in our view there are still many open questions about the implementation of the decision, and which make it impossible to hold the tournament.” The German leg of the Women’s Foil World Cup was the second of the season, after the one in Poznan, Poland. It entered the qualification period for the Paris 2024 Games, which opened at the beginning of April 2023.
