If you are interested in sports and the Olympics, then as fan you know the thrill that accompanies watching different athletes and teams in different Olympic sports qualify for the Olympic Games. Since the Olympic Games cannot accommodate all athletes from all countries in all Olympic disciplines, every sport needs to provide a qualification path for world athletes to be able to participate in the Games.

For most of my life I’ve started building the excitement a year before the torch was actually lit for the Olympic Games. I follow my favorite athletes and teams in different sports, watching their performances when possible or at the very least checking up to verify that they were on the ‘right’ path towards qualification. This has always added a thrill and excitement to the anticipation of the Olympics, because anything and everything can happen in pre-Olympic year.

Fencing is no different. 

There is an Olympic quota that limits how many athletes can participate in the Olympic Games, and this includes strict qualification rules.

Craig Harkins from Fencing.net provides a solid laymen’s summary of how Olympic fencing qualification works in his post Road to Rio: How to Qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games, which is itself based on the Official FIE Rio 2016 Qualification Rules.

Armed with an understanding of how to qualify, we can now transform this year into exciting months of watching the world’s best fencers and teams following their road to Rio.

As you read these documents, you will notice that there are two different paths for qualification: the one for fencers that have team events and the other for those who do not have team events.

While I am not going to repeat the whole qualification path, suggesting instead that you read the original documents, I will point out that for those disciplines that have team events the most important qualification will be the team qualification, as it immediately sends 3 athletes from the country to the Olympics, as well as a team.

In short, based on the rules, there are 8 teams that qualify to the Olympic Games per following:

• Top 4 teams in the FIE ranking
• 1 highest ranked team from places 5-16 per each region (i.e., Europe, Asia, Americas, Africa)
• In case some region does not have a country in top 16 the highest ranked team (regardless of the region) from the unused teams in  5-16 places takes the spot 

This immediately qualifies 24 fencers (=8*3) and the rest qualify per their individual ranking.

So let’s take a look at what all of this means.

The first to thing to understand is that unfortunately in fencing there are only 4 team events, instead of 6 possible (6=3 weapons by 2 genders). There are some historical reasons for there only being four team events, reasons that we will one day explain and what the consequences of this restriction are for world class fencers. The FIE tries to lobby the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to allow all fencing events to be held, and in many fencing related discussions you will hear fencers complaining that noble fencing is restricted from full representation while some other, more exotic sports are at the same time being added to the Olympics and the unfairness of the whole situation. But for now we’ll just have to accept this as a reality. So 2 team events will not be held at each Olympic Games. To make everybody “happy” and to be fair, FIE has decided to rotate which team events will be omitted from the Olympic Games.

There are 4 team events in the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio:

• Men’s Foil
• Men’s Epee
• Women’s Sabre
• Women’s Epee 

So while it is always fun to watch fencing results and competitions, it becomes to be even more exciting when you open your eyes and become familiar with their qualification efforts!

Let’s take a look at these 4 teams and analyze their chances.

Men’s Foil Team Olympic Qualification

You can check the current ranking on the official FIE ranking page for Men’s Foil Team competition, but so that you don’t have to look that far and so that we have some real numbers to look at as we go through our explanation, here is the Current World Ranking for Men’s Foil (top 16 – valid at the time of writing, which is September 24, 2015) is as follows:

1	388	RUSSIA	RUS
2	352	ITALY	ITA
3	324	FRANCE	FRA
4	296	USA	USA
5	286	CHINA	CHN
6	228	KOREA	KOR
7	214	GERMANY	GER
8	211	JAPAN	JPN
9	210	GREAT BRITAIN	GBR
10	208	EGYPT	EGY
11	170	BRAZIL	BRA
12	170	POLAND	POL
13	168	CANADA	CAN
14	164	UKRAINE	UKR
15	157	HONG KONG	HKG
16	123	BELARUS	BLR

Based on that current ranking following are the countries that currently qualify:

1. Russia (top 4)
2. Italy (top 4)
3. France (top 4)
4. USA (top 4)
5. China (top 1 in Asia zone)
6. Germany (top 1 in Europe after top 4 chosen)
7. Egypt (top 1 in Africa after top 4 chosen)
8. Brazil (top 1 in America after top 4 chosen) 

What is interesting here is that neither Japan nor Great Britain are qualified as of now due to their being second in their region. Can you imagine that Japan, a silver medalist from London Games and home country of the current world champion Yuki Ota, is not currently on track to qualify in Rio?

Well, that’s what makes the current season so very interesting! And it’s why the qualification season is so exciting.

Nobody’s spot is guaranteed. While top 4 counties look stable and they showed a consistently good result in the last season (and let’s hope they continue this season as well!), the real fight will be for the zonal spot. Japan would need to take on China, and Great Britain need to take on Germany. And the points distance between these two pairs is really close.

Now you can imagine how intense this season’s World Cups will be – every team will put forth its best effort to rise higher in the ranks of each single competition!

Men’s Epee Team Olympic Qualification

You can check the current ranking on the official FIE ranking page for Men’s Epee Team competition, but again we’ve given you the current rankings as of this writing (September 24, 2015) to give us something to talk about and to get you excited!

1	360	FRANCE	FRA
2	338	KOREA	KOR
3	312	UKRAINE	UKR
4	296	SWITZERLAND	SUI
5	222	RUSSIA	RUS
6	219	GERMANY	GER
7	216	HUNGARY	HUN
8	210	ITALY	ITA
9	183	CZECH REPUBLIC	CZE
10	177	KAZAKHSTAN	KAZ
11	176	USA	USA
12	172	SPAIN	ESP
13	165	VENEZUELA	VEN
14	160	POLAND	POL
15	156	ISRAEL	ISR
16	148	ESTONIA	EST

Here the qualification looks quite different:

1. France (top 4)
2. Korea (top 4)
3. Ukraine (top 4)
4. Switzerland (top 4)
5. Russia (1st in European zone)
6. Kazakhstan (1st in Asian zone)
7. USA (1st in American zone)
8. There is no African team in top 16, so in that case Germany takes this spot, which is highest ranked team among the teams that are not chosen yet

The situation here is a vastly removed from the Men’s Foil Team picture. For example, it does not look like the African Region will have a qualifying team, with Egypt being only in the 20th and unlikely to make it all the way into the top 16 as the field is extremely crowded with good teams. Also important to note is that spots 5-8 are all European teams (Russia, Germany, Hungary, Italy), and that means that actually the two highest ranked teams from this list can qualify.

How fascinating!

Women’s Sabre Team Qualification

Just as in the men’s, here you can check the current ranking on the official FIE ranking page for Women’s Sabre Team competition, but here again you’ll find those current rankings as of this writing (September 24, 2015) to give us something to allow us to explore the teams and discuss what the path the qualification looks like, and why we’re so excited about it!

1	396	RUSSIA	RUS
2	340	USA	USA
3	315	UKRAINE	UKR
4	304	FRANCE	FRA
5	272	ITALY	ITA
6	242	KOREA	KOR
7	226	POLAND	POL
8	211	CHINA	CHN
9	187	MEXICO	MEX
10	181	JAPAN	JPN
11	177	HUNGARY	HUN
12	173	SPAIN	ESP
13	167	HONG KONG	HKG
14	163	AZERBAIJAN	AZE
15	152	GERMANY	GER
16	118	VENEZUELA	VEN

Here’s how possible qualification looks:

1. Russia (top 4)
2. USA (top 4)
3. Ukraine (top 4)
4. France (top 4)
5. Italy (1st in European Region)
6. Korea (1st in Asia Region)
7. Mexico (1st in Americas Region)
8. Like in Men’s Epee, there is no African women’s sabre team in the top 16, so Poland will take the spot. 

As in the men’s epee, it seems that in women’s sabre chances of Tunisia or Egypt getting into top 16 are quite slim, and thus the fight is actually for the African spot and will be quite tense.

Women’s Epee Team Olympic Qualification

And lastly we come to the Women’s Epee Team Olympic Team competition, again with the current ranking on the FIE ranking page. Below you’ll find the current rankings as of this writing (September 24, 2015) in order to allow you to get some insight into what the rankings mean as we discuss.

1	370	CHINA	CHN
2	364	ROMANIA	ROU
3	304	ITALY	ITA
4	249	ESTONIA	EST
5	230	FRANCE	FRA
6	228	RUSSIA	RUS
7	227	SWEDEN	SWE
8	223	UKRAINE	UKR
9	215	USA	USA
10	212	KOREA	KOR
11	193	HUNGARY	HUN
12	188	GERMANY	GER
13	151	POLAND	POL
14	151	SWITZERLAND	SUI
15	136	JAPAN	JPN
16	134	VENEZUELA	VEN

Qualification here looks completely different once again:

1. China
2. Romania
3. Italy
4. Estonia
5. France (1st in European zone)
6. USA (1st in Americas Region)
7. Korea (1st in Asian Region)
8. No African team, so Russia gets the spot 

Here as before, the fight for all these spots will be really intense. And here again we see that the African spot is open for another qualifying team and that the team qualification for that spot will be fierce.

How to follow your favorite team

Now that you’re beginning to become familiar with the team standings, you can start following your favorite teams and their respective athletes as they try to qualify for the Olympics. As we discussed earlier, the most important qualification is team qualification for the weapons with the team event. So then the next question is – how fencing teams are ranked?

How fencing teams are ranked

Fencing teams are ranked just like individuals – via designated team competitions in the current season. Such competitions include team World Cups, team Zonal Championships, team World Championships and of course the Olympic Games. Once they finish their competitions, based on their placement in that team competition and based on the type of competition in which they were competing, they are awarded the appropriate amount of points.

There is a formula that defines how many points the team gets for which placement, which points are considered and which are not, etc (lots of details here). The most important thing to know is that higher the team is, the more points they get. Of course they need not only to improve their absolute ranking but also improve their ranking relative to other countries from their Region.

As we see from the stats above, the two toughest regions are Europe and Asia, and the “easiest” regions are Americans and Africa. Here the factor of difficulty means that the number of teams in top 8 and top 16 from the same zone make it difficult for a country to qualify via this zone. Well, that is hardly a surprise – with the rich history of fencing in the dominant regions and their Olympic traditions, we would expect many good teams coming out of these regions in any weapon.

Let’s take a look at some interesting and important discoveries here:

Currently there are only 3 teams, Russia, France and USA, that qualify for all team events at the Olympic Games. Italy is qualified in all but one event (Men’s Epee). Moreover, as the Americas are the “easiest” zone per the discussion above, it also looks like the USA will most certainly send its teams to every team event, and given that Europe is the hardest zone of all, with many fantastic teams in every event, at this stage nobody can really guarantee its spot and the fight is wide open until the qualification deadline in April 2016.

There are several World Cups that will happen before the qualification deadline in April of next year. Each one will be super important, as teams will put their best efforts in every match to get closer to securing those coveted spots.

Finding World Qualifying Tournaments

Take your favorite weapon(s), your favorite country (and hopefully it would be your home country) and start following their World Cup tournaments.

Finding these tournaments is easy, follow these steps:

1. Go to FIE site and click on “Competitions.”
2. Choose “Senior” for Category, Weapon (foil, epee, sabre) and Gender (Women, Men) and “Team” for the Event, click on “Search” and you will get a list of all competitions until end of this season, which for weapons in the team event will be the Olympic Games. 

For those people who read this post and live in California (or close enough to make a trip here), the next Men’s Foil Team event will be here, in San Jose – the Men’s Foil World Cup. This would be a fantastic opportunity for you to watch world class fencing and test your education after following of your team.

Let’s be contagious fencing fans!

What you’ve probably never realized is how important team competition in the world of fencing is. Most people think about fencing as purely an individual sport, and only “initiated” know that this is not exactly true. For many fencers their team results are oftentimes even more important than their individual results. I remember I read an interview with Russian foil fencer Dmitry Rigin, who won the St. Petersburg World Cup last season individually and as a team. In that interview he said that for him his team victory was more important than his individual win. Now you know why.

Knowing how important are team competitions for each country

The Olympic Games are a dream for any serious athlete on the planet, and they are the most exciting event in one’s life, not to mention the highest sport honor. With so few fencers being able to qualify, it becomes really fascinating to watch the top teams and top fencers as they stride towards reaching their dream and bringing the highest world sport honor to their countries and families.

Once you start following your country’s performance, apply your knowledge of where the team is in qualification, and suddenly you will see a thrill and excitement in this process. Moreover, as with any fan of other sports, you will become a part of the process!

Fencing is a fantastic sport, the one that we have chosen to be our life sport, the one we would swear is the best in the world and the most fun. But what it is missing is world class fans.

What are world class fans? They are educated fans, fans that know where their teams are. They are fans that argue with each other (or bet against others), fans that take wins and losses to their heart. And educated fans are contagious. And contagious fans are good news for the sport.

What do you think? Who are you excited about following on the road to Rio 2016?