Fencing

Type of armed combat sport

击剑 · フェンシング · 펜싱

Type

combat sport, Olympic sport, type of sport

Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: foil, épée, and sabre (also spelled saber), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fencers specialise in one of these disciplines. The modern sport gained prominence near the end of the 19th century, evolving from historical European swordsmanship. The Italian school altered the historical European martial art of classical fencing, and the French school later refined that system. Scoring points in a fencing competition is done by making contact with the opponent with one's sword.

The 1904 Olympic Games featured a fourth discipline of fencing known as singlestick, but it was dropped after that year and is not a part of modern fencing. Competitive fencing was one of the first sports to be featured in the Olympics and, along with athletics, cycling, swimming, and gymnastics, has been featured in every modern Olympics.

Styles and branches of Fencing

• Academic fencing
• Destreza
• Italian school of swordsmanship
• Épée fencing

Notable Fencing athletes and practitioners

• Thomas Bach Germany
• Pál Schmitt Hungary
• Ludolph van Ceulen
• Valentina Vezzali Italy
• Olha Kharlan Ukraine
• Aladár Gerevich Hungary
• Timur Safin Uzbekistan
• Ibtihaj Muhammad United States
• Adolf Schmal Austria
• Áron Szilágyi Hungary
• Halet Çambel Turkey
• Edoardo Mangiarotti Italy
• Pavel Kolobkov Russia
• Mariel Zagunis United States
• Laura Flessel-Colovic France
• Ilona Elek Hungary
• Nedo Nadi Kingdom of Italy
• Ramón Fonst Cuba
• Győző Kulcsár Hungary
• Jenő Fuchs Hungary
• Vivian Kong Man-wai People's Republic of China
• Ana Maria Popescu Romania
• Eugène-Henri Gravelotte France
• Periklis Pierrakos-Mavromichalis Greece
• Pál Kovács Hungary
• Endre Kabos Hungary
• Britta Heidemann Germany
• Giovanna Trillini Italy
• Katrina Lehis Estonia
• Yana Egorian Russia
• Cheung Ka-long British Hong Kong
• Daniele Garozzo Italy
• Ioannis Georgiadis Greece
• Holger Nielsen Kingdom of Denmark
• Rudolf Kárpáti Hungary
• Rubén Limardo Venezuela

3202 people in this reference practise Fencing.

Equipment and weapons

• foil
• épée
• saber

Fencing competitions

• 2025 European Fencing Championships
• fencing at the 2024 Summer Olympics – men's sabre
• fencing at the 2024 Summer Olympics – men's team sabre
• fencing at the 2024 Summer Olympics – men's épée
• fencing at the 2024 Summer Olympics – women's team sabre
• fencing at the 2024 Summer Olympics – women's sabre
• fencing at the 2024 Summer Olympics – men's foil
• fencing at the 2024 Summer Olympics – men's team foil
• fencing at the 2024 Summer Olympics – women's épée
• fencing at the 2024 Summer Olympics – women's team foil
• fencing at the 2024 Summer Olympics – men's team épée
• 2023 World Fencing Championships
• 2022 Pan American Fencing Championships
• 2022 European Fencing Championships
• 2022 World Fencing Championships
• fencing at the 2021 SEA Games
• fencing at the 2020 Summer Olympics – women's team foil
• fencing at the 2020 Summer Olympics – men's team épée
• fencing at the 2020 Summer Olympics – men's individual sabre
• fencing at the 2020 Summer Olympics – men's team sabre
• fencing at the 2020 Summer Olympics – men's individual foil
• fencing at the 2020 Summer Olympics – women's individual sabre
• fencing at the 2020 Summer Olympics – women's team sabre
• fencing at the 2020 Summer Olympics – women's individual foil

123 competitions in total.

Rules, ranks and training

• Calories burned: Fencing, general

External links

• Wikipedia
• Wikidata

Facts from Wikidata Q12100 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.

Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.