Universality cannot be decreed. But it can be measured. At the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the fencing competitions at the Grand Palais, a sublime setting for a meeting of the world's elite, recorded more global participation than ever before. No fewer than five countries – Cape Verde, Kenya, Cyprus, Niger and Rwanda – were represented for the first time in history.
The reason? It is to be found in the long-term development policy implemented by the International Fencing Federation (FIE) for more than a decade. A strategy oriented towards several directions, of which the participation and results of the Paris 2024 Games, where the medals were distributed among 13 countries from four continents, were the most recent and visible illustration.
First target: the high level. The time when world fencing was almost entirely confined to a handful of countries, mainly European, is long gone. The elite now prepares all over the planet. Dieter Lammer, the FIE's sports and technical director, explains: " Each year, the FIE takes advantage of the cadet/junior and senior world championships to organize a one-week training camp, before the start of the competitions, in the host city of the event. It brings together around twenty fencers and is supervised, in the three weapons of the program, by FIE coaches."
Proof of the program's success: the presence at the Paris 2024 Games of a foil fencer from the Virgin Islands, Kruz Schembri, who attended an FIE training camp for the 2023 junior world championships.
New in the new season, the first of the Olympiad leading to the Los Angeles 2028 Games: an international calendar redesigned and revised by the executive committee to promote the development of fencing at the global level. Since last September, the four continental zones – Africa, the Americas, Asia-Oceania and Europe – have offered an equal number of international competitions. The season is thus divided geographically into four equal parts, for both juniors and seniors.
« This new calendar configuration allows for reduced travel costs, especially for smaller countries that do not always have the money to send their best fencers all over the world, explains Dieter Lammer. This first season is a test. The principle will be analyzed, adapted and implemented sustainably."
Another area of development: training. For several years, the FIE has supported a vast training program for coaches and fencing masters on a global scale. It relies on the confederations to develop, under the leadership of its own coaches, the skills of technical managers all over the planet.
In parallel, the two FIE academies provide a solid coach training program in the three weapons of fencing. The most universal is located in Budapest, Hungary, where technicians come from all over the world to follow a two- to three-month course. In Johannesburg, South Africa, the FIE academy is more oriented towards English-speaking African countries, with an 11-month course. Since their creation, the two structures have trained or supported a large number of coaches, many of whom teach in their own countries at all levels of practice.
The international body knows that the development of fencing cannot ignore the issue of equipment. For over a decade, it has supported a specific program, aid for equipment, dedicated to national federations. "Every year we donate equipment – weapons, personal equipment for fencers, signaling devices, tracks, etc. – to 25 countries per continental zone, explains Dieter Lammer. Requests are sent through the confederations. We help around 100 federations each year, or two-thirds of our member federations."
The last development path, more recently explored but already very promising: veterans. Starting with the next edition, scheduled for autumn 2025, the veteran world championships will offer a new age category, 40/49 years old, the youngest in the programme. It will therefore no longer be required to be at least 50 years old to compete internationally. Advantage: bridging the gap between the end of a career in the seniors and the start of a new adventure in the veterans ranks.
