Italy's Matteo Tagliariol lunges on the way to a gold medal in individual epee. (Getty Images)(ATR) Fencing has gone on the attack to become more spectator-friendly and avoid judging scandals like the one that marred the 2004 Olympics.
The biggest change involving the sport is the video refereeing system that is making its first Olympic appearance at The Fencing Hall in Beijing.
In Athens, Hungarian referee Joszef Hidasi was expelled from the Games and suspended for two years for making several errors in the gold-medal men's foil match. All of his decisions favored Italy in its victory over China.
"It was very troublesome," Rene Roch, president of the International Fencing Federation (FIE) says.
Although no system can be perfect, Roch says, "this one is 95 percent satisfactory. It has cut down enormously the amount of complaint, trouble and sheer hassle where people continue to bother the referees about the decisions. Our sport can now take place in a degree of calm it didn't have before and which is most welcome."
The system has been very much in evidence spectators at the venue and to viewers watching the Olympics on television. When the lights designating a hit appear to flash simultaneously, the referee sometimes steps away from the piste, or fencing strip, and consults a video monitor nearby.
The referee can watch the action at real speed and in slow motion, starting three seconds before the action and up to the hit. The referee also consults with the refereeing delegate, who has the option of requesting the referee review his decision at any times.
In individual events, a fencer has two possible appeals to video refereeing during direct elimination bouts and one possible appeal during pool competition. If the fencer wins the appeal, he or she receives another appeal. In team events, the fencers have one possible appeal per relay and get back the appeal if proven right.Rene Roch, FIE President. (ATR)
Roch says the image has been slightly fuzzy when fencers are on all four pistes because of the split-screen, but the quality improves for the later rounds when there is just one bout at a time.
Video refereeing was introduced in 2005 in limited use, then implemented fully at the 2006 World Championships in Torino.
Other Innovations in the Sport
As a way to increase its visual appeal, it has replaced the unsightly cables with wireless fencing in which a portable device is placed under the fencer's mask. Every time there is a hit, the signal is transmitted via Bluetooth to the central apparatus. Sabre went wireless in Athens and all foil bouts are wireless for the first time in the Olympics in Beijing.
The transparent mask is also being used in all sabre and foil bouts. This allows the fencers' eyes to be seen.
"The impact has been exceptional," Roch says.
He said epee has so far resisted the transparent mask because of the safety issue involved with the force of the touch.
Also for the first time, there are television cameras on all four pistes.
"Countries can ask for and get live TV at all times," Roch says.
Future of Fencing
Roch said the technological advances prove that the sport, which has been part of the Olympics since 1896, is changing with the times. Although the IOC constantly reevaluates the Olympic program, Roch says, "We don't see keeping in the Olympic Games any problem at all. Our problem is to get more medal and more places."
Fencing is only allowed 10 events in the Olympics although it has 12 in the World Championships: foil, epee and sabre for men and women. The sport decided to have all six individual events, but only four team events. For this Olympics there are no team events in women's epee or men's foil team. In Athens, there were no team events in women's foil or women's sabre.
That means that for the first time in the history of fencing, the sport has achieved full gender parity at the Olympics with the same number of women's events as men's events. Although the U.S. women swept the sabre event, Roch said the sport's breadth of participation was demonstrated by Azza Besbes of Tunisia making the quarterfinals. She is the first African to advance that far into the bracket.
Venue Well-suited for Sport's Needs
Roch says The Fencing Hall on the Olympic Green is exceptional. "I've rarely seen facilities so well adapted to our sport," he says. "Everything that we have asked for, we have been given, so if anything doesn't work, it is our fault. I t is not their lack of organization."
For the women's sabre finals, the 4,000 seat arena was nearly full.
Of course, you can't please everyone. Russia's Sofiya Velikaya, who lost the bronze medal match to Becca Ward of the United States, complained.
"The venue is comfortable, but the audience was noisy. Their noise affected my performance," she said
An Unwelcome Aspect
Roch believes fencing's development into what he calls aItaly's Andrea Baldini, the No. 1 ranked men's foil fencer, failed a drug test at the European Championships in Kiev in July. (Getty Images) "big sport" is a mixed blessing because it attracts issues like doping. Because there were no positive tests for so long, Roch says, some people thought fencing had no anti-doping controls. However, the clean run ended when Italy's Andrea Baldini, the No. 1 ranked men's foil fencer, failed a drug test at the European Championships in Kiev in July.
Baldini tested positive for positive for the banned diuretic furosemide, which is more commonly known as Lasix and appears on the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) list of banned drug as an alleged masking agent.
"Even though there are sports a lot worse than us," Roch says, "it is attention we can do without. "
He said he believes that Baldini simply made a mistake and "was not careful." The hearing will take place on Sept. 3, so it won't interfere with the Olympics. Roch said Baldini's lawyer also asked for more time to prepare his defense.
Written by ATR Staff in BeijingFor general comments or questions, click here
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
