SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov. 25, 2023 — The International Fencing Federation (FIE) 2023 Congress has met in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, with 107 of its 136 national federations present and 29 represented.
Several decisions, proposals and announcements were made at the event, including the following:
Candidate World Championships Cities. For the 2024-2025 competition season, based on a vote at this year’s Congress, the fencing federations that were awarded World Championships included the following cities:
- 2025 Junior and Cadet Fencing World Championships: Wuxi, China
- 2025 Senior Fencing World Championships: Tbilisi, Georgia
- 2026 Junior and Cadet Fencing World Championships: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- 2026 Senior Fencing World Championships: Hong Kong, China
There was a call for the organisation of the 2027 Junior and Cadet and Senior Fencing World Championships and the 2025, 2026 and 2027 Veteran Fencing World Championships.
FIE Awards. Several awards were given at the FIE Congress, including the following:
- Challenge Chevalier Feyerick: Every two years, the FIE awards the Challenge Chevalier Feyerick Trophy, given to either an individual fencer, team or member federation who has shown the most chivalrous, unselfish attitude and spirit of sportsmanship, and it is one of the highest recognitions from the FIE. The 2023 Challenge Chevalier Feyerick award is given posthumously to Ms. Ana Pascu (ROU), FIE Member of Honour and Hall of Fame member, former FIE Vice President and five-time Olympic foilist.
- The FIE set up a Fair Play Council at its 2015 Congress in China and actively promotes the ideals of sportsmanship at all competitions. The annual FIE Fair Play award was awarded to three athletes by the FIE Executive Committee, based on proposals from the Fair Play Council:
- Lachlan Crook (AUS)
- Maria Akshita Ciril Rajdev (IND)
- Mostafa Tahoun (EGY)
- An annual award was given to the junior and senior top-ranked individuals and teams, including:
- Individual Juniors
- Men’s Epee: Mohamed Elsayed (EGY)
- Women’s Epee: Hadley Husisian (USA)
- Men’s Foil: Damiano Di Veroli (ITA)
- Women’s Foil: Aurora Grandis (ITA)
- Men’s Sabre: Colin Heathcock (USA)
- Women’s Sabre: Nisanur Erbil (TÜR)
- Junior Teams
- Men’s Epee: Egypt
- Women’s Epee: Poland
- Men’s Foil: USA
- Women’s Foil: USA
- Men’s Sabre: Uzbekistan
- Women’s Sabre: Hungary
- Individual Seniors
- Men’s Epee: Davide Di Veroli (ITA)
- Women’s Epee: Marie-Florence Candassamy (FRA)
- Men’s Foil: Alexander Massialas (USA)
- Women’s Foil: Lee Kiefer (USA)
- Men’s Sabre: Sandro Bazadze (GEO)
- Women’s Sabre: Sara Balzer (FRA)
- Senior Teams
- Men’s Epee: France
- Women’s Epee: Korea
- Men’s Foil: Japan
- Women’s Foil: Italy
- Men’s Sabre: Korea
- Women’s Sabre: France
- Grand Prix of the Nations
- Cadet: Hungary
- Junior: USA
- Senior: Italy
- Veteran: USA
- Individual Juniors
New Member Federations. Montenegro received approval as a member of the FIE, bringing the total number of member federations to 156.
Fencing and the Environment. A substantial report was provided to the Congress on the results of the FIE Fencing and the Environment Working Group, led by FIE Vice President Ana Irene Delgado Guerra (PAN). The report included comprehensive and detailed statistics of sustainability programmes undertaken throughout the FIE world fencing community, as well as reports of various initiatives to educate and encourage federations and fencers worldwide to engage in sustainability projects and working standards.
Proposals. Several proposals were presented at the Congress, including the following:
- A proposal to change the criteria of the FIE Athletes’ Commission, to include seven elected members and five appointed (formerly, it was six elected and six appointed) was approved. This will become active beginning with the elections of the Commission in 2025.
- Proposals to change requirements to be a candidate for the Legal, Medical, SEMI and Refereeing Commissions, and to introduce candidacy requirements for the PCM (Promotion, Communications and Marketing) Commission were approved.
A proposal to increase the number of members voted into the Ethics Commission from 5 to 10 members was approved. 