PARIS, France, August 7, 2024 – Nine days of fencing competition have completed at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in the Grand Palais between July 27 and August 4, with 12 gold medals awarded in individual and team events for women and men in epee, foil and sabre.
“We have seen fencing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in the Grand Palais in the most spectacular venue in our lifetime”, said Emmanuel Katsiadakis, FIE Interim President. “Fencing events at these Games will surely stand as the most memorable of all time, presenting our sport to the world as never before. I congratulate our new Olympic champions, all participating athletes, as well as all the people who made these Games possible. Fencing has absolutely entered a new era of excitement and interest, having reached millions of spectators and fans worldwide.”
A total of 53 NOCs participated in the Paris 2024 Olympic fencing programme, with 212 athletes, evenly divided between 106 women and 106 men.
The medals were distributed among four continents and 13 countries. Japan topped the fencing medals table with a total of five (2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze), followed by USA with four (2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze) and Korea with three (2 gold, 1 silver).
In addition to a sold-out audience in the Grand Palais for every day of fencing competition, millions of people worldwide followed fencing on television and social media. The FIE posted more than 1200 updates on the Games, engaging with followers on its website as well as X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Linked-In and Weibo, achieving contact with approximately 30 million impressions over the nine days of competition.
The FIE hosted programmes at the Olympic Games to introduce the public and guests to fencing, including giving visitors to the Grand Palais the opportunity to learn the basics of the sport. Under the umbrella of the French Fencing Federation and direction of French fencing masters, spectators were able to try fencing each day of competition.
The following notable results, records and achievements took place throughout fencing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games:
- The Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony included two French Olympic champions participating in the final torch relay, Laura Flessel and Jean-Francois Lamour
- Seven fencers competing in Paris 2024 served as flag-bearers for their respective countries, including Yousef Alshamlan (KUW), Ka Long Cheung (HKG), Zaynab Dayibekova (UZB), Maria Luisa Doing Calderon (PER), Arianna Errigo (ITA), Emura Misaki (JPN) and Kruz Schembri (ISV)
- Five countries had athletes participating in fencing at the Olympic Games for the first time in history: Cape Verde, Cyprus, Kenya, Niger and Rwanda
- Hong Kong, China’s Man Wai Vivian Kong won her country’s first-ever women’s Olympic fencing medal, gold in women’s individual epee
- USA’s women’s foil fencer Lee Kiefer is the first U.S. fencer in history to win three Olympic gold medals, including individual and team titles in Paris 2024 events
- Japan’s Koki Kano won the first-ever gold medal in an individual Olympic fencing event for Japan, in men’s epee
- France’s Manon Apithy-Brunet won the first-ever Olympic medal for France in women’s sabre, in the individual event
- Italy won its first-ever gold medal in women’s team epee
- USA won the gold medal in women’s team foil, the first time the country has won an Olympic gold medal in any team fencing event
- For the first time in 52 years, Hungary won the Olympic gold medal in men’s team epee
- Japan won the men’s team foil gold medal, the first time the country has ever won the event
Multiple dignitaries and VIPs visited fencing at the Grand Palais throughout the Games, most notably including President of France Emmanuel Macron, President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani, President of Singapore Tharman Shanmugaratnam, President of Slovakia Peter Pellegrini, HRH Grand Duke Henri de Luxembourg (IOC member), HSH Albert II Prince of Monaco (IOC member), President of Italy Sergio Mattarella, Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni, President of Estonia Alar Karis, President of Hungary Tamás Sulyok and former President of Hungary Mr. Pál Schmitt (former IOC member, Olympic champion fencer), USA First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, Paris 2024 Organising Committee President Tony Estanguet, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, French Minister for Sport and the Olympic and Paralympic Games of France Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, and numerous other dignitaries.
Numerous Olympic and world champions from fencing as well as other sports visited the Grand Palais throughout the fencing competitions, most notably including snowboarding three-time Olympic gold medallist Shaun White and Olympic, world champion figure skater Brian Boitano and French epee fencer Laura Flessel (who has won the most Olympic medals of any French sportswoman and served as the French Minister of Sports from 2017-2018). The multiple celebrity guests attending fencing competitions notably included French football stars Zinedine Zidane and Antoine Griezmann, F1 driver Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton MBE HonFREng, actress Nina Dobrev and music stars Sir Michael Philip (Mick) Jagger of The Rolling Stones, Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden and Snoop Dogg.
In an official statement from the International Olympic Committee, IOC President and Men’s Team Foil Olympic gold medallist Thomas Bach stated, “...you have never seen fencing until you have seen it in the Grand Palais, where thousands of people are singing and cheering for every competitor in a magnificent setting”. Mr. Bach presented the medals with FIE Interim President Emmanuel Katsiadakis for men’s team foil on the final day of fencing in the Grand Palais.
Complete information about fencing results and athletes at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games may be found on the official Olympic website and here on the FIE web site.
For more exciting world fencing news and features, check out the YouTube FIE Fencing Channel. Find official photos from this and other events on the FIE Facebook page.