Fencing is a martial art which is played or fight with blades. Fencing is also an Olympic sport and probably that is why it is called ‘Olympic fencing’ also. Since Fencing is an Olympic sport it is also one of the most popular sports around the world as well. So let us know more about Fencing.
All you want to know about Fencing
As we have mentioned above, Fencing is a martial art which is played with blades. It is an Olympic event which is distributed in three major categories, foil, saber and epee. The importance of fencing is really fascinating because it is one of those five events which have been part of each modern Olympics till date. The other four such events are Athletics, Swimming, Cycling and Gymnastics.
Federation Internationale d’Escrime is the governing body of fencing. The organization is also known as FIE. FIE has its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. Total 145 national fencing federations are affiliated with FIE. All these federations are also recognized by the Olympic Committee. The history of fencing takes us back to the 15th Century Spain, where several books on fencing were written. The oldest book on fencing which is also considered to be the manual for fencing was written by Diego de Valera, the name of the book was Treatise on Arms and was written between 1458 and 1471.
The FIE is the authority to make and change the rules for fencing. These rules sanctioned by FIE are applicable to all the international fencing events, including world cups, world championships and of course the summer Olympics. The FIE normally changes the rules, if necessary after the first year of an Olympic game is over, although the United States Fencing Association has its own sets of rules, which are slightly different from those maintained by FIE.
As mentioned above, fencing has three different weapons which are called foil, epee and saber. Apart from that the player also wears protective gears like jacket, gloves, plastron, knickers and the mask. Normally there is no serious injury reported in the history of the game till now but yet these protective gears are the must for every player who is part of fencing.
