Favourites
- Lee Kiefer (USA) won the Olympic gold medal in the women’s individual foil event at each of the last two Olympic Games (Tokyo 2020, Paris 2024), but she has yet to win a world title in this event. She claimed bronze medals in the individual foil at the world championships in 2011, 2022 and 2023, and she can become the first USA woman to win the world title in this event. Kiefer has won seven medals in fencing at the world championships. Among fencers representing USA, only Mariel Zagunis (14) and Kiefer’s husband Gerek Meinhardt (7) have won as many medals. Kiefer is the current women’s foil champion at the Olympic Games (2024), Pan American Games (2023) and Pan American championships (2025).
- Alice Volpi (ITA) won the world title in the women’s individual foil in 2018 and 2023. She can become the seventh woman to win at least three world titles in this event, after Valentina Vezzali (ITA, 6), Helene Mayer (GER, 3), Ilona Elek (HUN, 3), Ellen Müller-Preis (AUT, 3), Cornelia Hanisch (FRG, 3) and Inna Gracheva (RUS, 3).
- Arianna Errigo (ITA) can also win her third world title in the women’s individual foil, after 2013 and 2014. Errigo (G2-S3-B5) has won 10 world championships medals in the women’s individual foil. This is the second-most medals for a fencer in any individual event, after Valentina Vezzali’s 12 medals (G6-S2-B4) in the women’s individual foil.
- Martina Favaretto (ITA) is the only woman to have won multiple World Cup and Grand Prix events in the women’s foil this season (4 wins). When Favaretto (born 15 November 2001) took bronze in the individual foil in 2023, she became the first woman born in this century to claim a medal in this event at the world championships. Favaretto won her last three international matches against Kiefer, her last three versus Errigo, and her last two against Volpi.
- Anna Cristino (ITA), the new rising talent in Italian squad, hopes to win her first world
championships medal. Italy has won at least
one medal in this event at each of the last 15 world championships. The last
time it did not win a medal was in 2002.
- Eleanor Harvey (CAN) can win the first world title for Canada in any fencing event. At Paris 2024, she claimed the first-ever Olympic medal in fencing for Canada, when she beat Alice Volpi in the women’s foil bronze medal match. Canada has won three medals in fencing at the world championships: Sherraine Schalm won bronze (2005) and silver (2009) in the women’s epee individual, and Igor Tikhomirov claimed bronze in the men’s epee individual in 2006.
- Lauren Scruggs (USA) claimed the Olympic silver medal in the women’s foil at Paris 2024. At the age of 22, Scruggs could become the youngest world champion in this event since Giovanna Trillini (ITA) was 21 years old in 1991.
- Yuka Ueno (JPN) won the women’s foil at the Asian championships in Bali in June. She could win the first medal for Japan in this event at the world championships. The only Japanese woman to have won a fencing world title is Misaki Emura: gold in the sabre individual in 2022 and 2023.
- Eva Lacheray (FRA) won the European title in the women’s foil in June. The last woman to win the world title and European title in this event in the same year was Valentina Vezzali in 2001. France won two world titles in this event: Marie-Chantale Demaille-Depetris in 1971, and Ysaora Thibus in 2022.
Various
- Sixteen-year-old Jaelyn Liu (USA) won the cadet and junior world titles in the women’s foil in Wuxi in April this year. The youngest fencer to win a medal in the women’s individual foil at the senior world championships was Sabine Bau (FRG) who was 17 years and 15 days old when claimed silver in 1986.
- Qianqian Huang (CHN) defeated Ueno in the final of the women’s foil event at the 2023 Asian Games. China’s only world championships medals in this event were won by Jujie Luan: silver (1981) and bronze (1983, 1987).
- Carolina Stutchbury (GBR) took silver (2025) and bronze (2024) in the women’s individual foil at the European championships. The only woman to have won a world title for Great Britain in fencing was Gwendoline Neligan in the women’s individual foil in 1933. Great Britain’s last world championships medal in a women’s event was a bronze medal in the foil team in 1950.
- Flora Pasztor (HUN) could win the first world championships medal for Hungary in the women’s individual foil since 2007, when Aida Mohamed claimed bronze.
- Arianna Errigo won gold in the women’s individual foil at the 2017 European championships in Tbilisi. She is the only fencer who won an individual event at those championships who returns to the city for this year’s world championships.
- At the World Cup in Tbilisi in April 2024, Errigo lost the final of the women’s individual foil event to Alice Volpi. Anna Cristino (bronze) and Martina Favaretto (bronze) completed the all-Italian podium in this event.
- Italy’s 56 medals (G17-S17-B22) in the women’s individual foil are the most by an NF in a specific women’s event at the world championships.