About Fencing

You can find us:

@ St Conleth's College Gym, Clyde Road, Dublin 4 D04 FT98

on Wednesdays

from

18.45 - 22.00 (throughout the fencing year)

Click here for timetable

The international language of fencing is French. Consequently, most fencing terms are French with Italian and sometimes Russian, Hungarian or Polish usages.

You can download a Glossary of fencing terms in English with French equivalents here.

A history of Irish fencing is here.

Did you know?

Fencing is one of only four sports to feature in every Olympics. The founder of the Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, was a keen supporter of fencing and as a result the sport was one of only nine included in the first modern Olympic programme in 1896.

Foil, sabre and Masters' fencing for men were the only disciplines on show, with Frenchman Eugene-Henri Gravelotte, Ioannis Georgiadis (Greece's first Olympic champion) and Leonidas Pyrgos, claiming the respective gold medals.

The sport was well established at the Olympics prior to the International Federation (FIE) being set up in 1913, by which time the competition had been enlarged to include Épée.

A number of technical advances have caused considerable turmoil in the sport, such as electrifying épée in 1936 and later the introduction of electric judging. Electronic scoring for foil and sabre followed in 1956 and 1992 respectively.

Women's foil was first contested at the 1924 Games, but it was not until 1996 that women's épée was contested. Women's sabre only followed in 2004.

France, Italy and Hungary dominated the event in the Olympics until the 1960's, when the USSR joined the elite nations, followed by West Germany in the 1970’s and 1980's.

The sport can boast one of the great Olympic champions in Aladar Gerevich. The Hungarian won seven golds and is the only man to win six titles at consecutive Games, his run in sabre lasted from 1932 to 1960.