Fencing

What are the rules of Fencing?

A fencing bout involves two fencers and a referee. The objective is for an athlete to land hits or ‘touches’ with their sword on designated areas of their opponent’s body in order to score points. All three disciplines take place on a piste which is 14m long and 1.5m-2m wide. Retreating off the end of the piste results in a point to the opponent. Each touch is worth one point, and each bout is separated into three periods of three minutes (with a one-minute break between periods). The first competitor to reach 15 points - or the athlete in the lead when the third period is completed - is declared the winner.

In team competition, each member of one team faces each member of the other team once (for a total of nine bouts). Each bout is three minutes long, or to 5 points, with the score carrying over between bouts. If the ninth bout is completed and neither team has 45 points, the team with the most points is declared the winner.

Fencing and the Olympics

Fencing is just one of five sports which have been permanent fixtures at the Olympic Games since the first modern Games were held in 1896. Only three events were contested at the 1896 Games in Athens (men’s individual foil, men’s individual sabre, masters foil), but that number has since increased to 12, with men’s and women’s individual and team competitions for each discipline.

Paris 2024 Rules and Event Format

There will be 12 medal events (6 men’s/6 women’s), and the same weapons will be used by each gender:

Individual Epée, Individual Foil, Individual Sabre, Team Epée, Team Foil, Team Sabre

The Olympic fencing competition uses a direct-elimination format, which means an athlete (or team) must win each bout to advance to the next round. A loss means the athlete/team is eliminated from the competition, with the exception of the semi-finals; the two losers of the semi-finals will compete for the bronze medal, while the winners advance to the gold-medal bout.

Qualified fencers will be placed in a draw based on their discipline. The seeding of the individual and team competitors is based on their ranking from the international fencing federation: the Federation Internationale d'Escrime.