Even for the most seasoned of fencers, learning all about the players in the Olympics from the world of fencing can be a bit daunting.
We’ve put together some resources to help you both watch fencing at the Olympics and also to help you learn more about the fencers who are competing. Maybe you’re familiar with the American players in the Games, or maybe you know all of the international names. Maybe you’re really new to fencing and have never heard of any of these people! No matter what your level, the following information will be a great help for you to figure out what’s going on this year and to deepen your understanding of what international fencing is all about.
Tokyo 2020 in 2021, here we come!
Schedule of Olympic Fencing Events
Before we go too deep into who’s fencing, let’s first make sure you know the schedule so you won’t miss a touch.
(Here’s a guide to how to watch the Olympics if you don’t have cable.)
Note that the Olympics are taking place in Japan, so our guide will give you both the time that they’ll happen in Tokyo and when they’ll air on NBC. You can find the full schedule here – this will tell you when each of the individual events will happen.
- July 23rd at 8pm EST (July 24 at 9am Tokyo time)
- Men’s Saber Individual
- Women’s Epee Individual
- Men’s Epee Individual
- Women’s Foil Individual
- July 25th at 8pm EST (July 26 at 9am Tokyo time)
- Men’s Foil Individual
- Women’s Saber Individual
- July 26th at 8pm EST (July 27 at 9am Tokyo time)
- Women’s Epee Team
- July 27th at 9pm EST (July 28 at 10am Tokyo time)
- Men’s Saber Team
- July 28th at 8pm EST (July 29 at 9am Tokyo time)
- Women’s Foil Team
- July 29th at 9pm EST (July 30 at 10am Tokyo time)
- Men’s Epee Team
- July 30th at 9pm EST (July 31 at 10am Tokyo time)
- Women’s Saber Team
- July 31st at 8pm EST (July 28 at 9am Tokyo time)
- Men’s Foil Team
Who is competing in the Olympics in 2021?
You can find a full listing of who is qualified to compete in fencing on the Wikipedia page here. We won’t go down the whole list, but here’s a quick rundown of the teams in each event.
- Women’s Team Epee
- China
- Poland
- Russia
- South Korea
- Hong Kong
- United States
- Italy
- Estonia
- Men’s Team Epee
- France
- Italy
- Ukraine
- Switzerland
- South Korea
- United States
- Russia
- China
- Japan
- Women’s Team Sabre
- Russia
- Italy
- France
- South Korea
- China
- Tunisia
- United States
- Hungary
- Japan
- Men’s Team Sabre
- South Korea
- Hungary
- Italy
- Germany
- Iran
- Egypt
- United States
- Russia
- Japan
- Women’s Team Foil
- Russia
- Italy
- France
- United States
- Japan
- Egypt
- Canada
- Hungary
- Men’s Team Foil
- United States
- France
- Italy
- Russia
- Hong Kong
- Egypt
- Canada
- Germany
- Japan
In a related post, we have provided our analysis and predictions for these Games.
Profiling the teams and individuals fencing in 2020
There are lots of great resources out there for fencing and for following the results.
If you are particularly focused on the United States, check out the USA Fencing Tokyo Tracker, which will give you updated information about how fencing is progressing throughout the Games. NBC’s Olympic Fencing page will post highlights and matches as well. These are both awesome resources.
But you want more! Of course, you do. We can’t get enough of Olympic fencing!
FIE has outdone themselves this year on their youtube channel with profiles of each of the teams that are competing. There are profiles of each of the teams that are competing, and they are cool and quick, but also in-depth and awesome. You can find them all at this link, and below we’ve put together some of our favorites. They’re each less than two minutes long – perfect for catching up from anywhere.
We are always looking out for more resources about fencing, and the news coverage is going to ramp up this year, it already is. There are some pretty great stories already up and here are just a couple that we found interesting.
- Reuters: Fencing-Five to watch at the Tokyo Olympics
- NY Post: Meet the brother-sister fencing duo headed to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics
- GQ: On Guard: Curtis McDowald Is Fighting His Way to the Top of the Fencing World
- LA Times: Nick Itkin could bring U.S. first Olympic team fencing title
- The Week: Forced to pick fencing in school: Olympic-bound Bhavani Devi
- USA Fencing: Series of 21 questions to the US fencing Olympians. The first goes back to February 2021, with Eli Dershwitz. You can scroll forward to read the rest.
It’s almost here! After five long years of waiting and no one being sure that the Olympics would happen, we finally made it to Tokyo a year late and with empty stands. It’s amazing to think that it’s all really going to go on, and we are keeping our fingers crossed for everyone to have a safe and wonderful Olympics.
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