The FIE have made many changes over the last few Olympic cycles which have really improved the TV appeal of the sport for a number of reasons. The floor lights first used in London 2012 we have already discussed on this blog and they do add a great deal of drama to proceedings but there are other presentation improvements that I also think need to be recognised and celebrated.
The realisation came about in part due to watching older Olympic footage before I went to Rio. Not wanting to sound desperately old; it struck me that only 16 years ago in Sydney the broadcast was almost unwatchable even to someone who understands fencing.
The picture was grainy, the motion blurry and you could hardly pick out the blades never mind the detail of blade interaction. There was hardly any on screen information either so if you flicked on to a team match you had no idea how it was going for some time.
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By LeonPaul