Fencing Olympics. evil empire

From 6 to 14 August in Rio de Janeiro will be held olympic fencing competition. The Olympic fencing tournament will last 9 days. Medals will be played in six personal and four team disciplines.

the site offers you the full schedule of fencing competitions on Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, use the program so as not to miss the performances of your favorite athletes. Root for your favorites, may the strongest win!

Fencing. Schedule of fencing competitions at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

August 7. Sunday -
Rapier. Men. Individual championship
22:00 Semi-finals
23:15 Fight for third place
23:45 Final. award ceremony

8 August. Monday -
Saber. Women. Individual championship
22:00 Semi-finals
23:15 Fight for third place
23:45 Final. award ceremony

August 9th. Tuesday -
Sword. Men. Individual championship
22:00 Semi-finals
23:15 Fight for third place
23:45 Final. award ceremony

August 10. Wednesday -
Rapier. Women. Individual championship
23:30 Semi-finals
01:20 Fight for third place
02:15 Final. award ceremony
Saber. Men. Individual championship
00:30 Semi-finals
01:50 Fight for third place
02:45 Final. Award ceremony

11th August. Thursday -
Sword. women. Team championship
19:15 Semi-finals

12th of August. Friday -
Rapier. Men. Team Championship
18:00 Semi-finals
23:00 Fight for third place
00:30 Final. Award ceremony

August 13th. Saturday -
Saber. Women. Team Championship
17:30 Semi-finals
23:00 Fight for third place
00:15 Final. Award ceremony

August 14th. Sunday
Sword. Men. Team Championship
19:15 Semi-finals
23:00 Fight for third place
00:30 Final. Award ceremony

Team Russia is about those who take real risks.

Silver with bandaged eye

Today's fencing suits reliably cover the body of athletes from injections. The weapon has become more flexible, and there is a special knob on the tip of the blade. It is impossible to pierce the equipment. But 50-60 years ago, protective ammunition was not perfect, and serious incidents on the fencing track were not were rare.

The 1972 Summer Games in Munich were remembered for the Korbut loop, three basketball seconds and the terrorist attack in the Olympic Village. Almost no one talks about the courageous act of the fencer Viktor Sidyak. At that Olympics, he became the first Soviet saber fencer in history to win an individual tournament. From Munich, he could bring two gold. The USSR saber team looked stronger than all the rivals in terms of composition and was supposed to win the team tournament.

In the first round, Soviet saber fencers met with Italy. In one of the battles, the blade of the Italian Michelle Maffei hit the protective net on Sidyak's helmet, broke, and a fragment of the saber stuck into Victor's cornea. In Munich, the athlete underwent surgery, as the German doctors failed to get the fragment with a magnet. The patient was advised to rest, but the next day Sidyak reached the final team tournament(against the same Italians) with a rewound eye. As the athlete recalled, the eye did not hurt, as the anesthesia worked, but fencing with a bandage was inconvenient. As a result, the Soviet team lost the final, leaving with silver.

Three millimeters to the heart

Sidyak will take team gold in four years in Montreal and at the Games in Moscow. The 1980 Olympics will be his last. At that fencing tournament, tragedy nearly struck in the team foil tournament. The most terrible incidents in fencing occurred when the blade broke and the knob could no longer protect. And the rapier breaks more often than other types of weapons.

So it was in the fight between the USSR and Poland at the Moscow Olympics. Vladimir Lapitsky attacked Adam Robak and turned around during the reception, and the rapier broke at the Pole, which he thrust into the back of the Soviet athlete by inertia. The blade hit the soft tissue of his back and exited his chest. Lapitsky fell onto the path. Fortunately, vital organs weren't hurt. The broken rapier passed within three millimeters of the heart.

In the team tournament of foil fencers at the Olympics-80, the Italians won. The USSR national team was second, the Poles took bronze. In addition to silver, Lapitsky received the award "For Courage" from the Central Committee of the Komsomol, as well as gold medal Games. It was presented to the athlete by Italians who visited him in the hospital.

The tragedy of Vladimir Smirnov

Vladimir Smirnov was a member of that silver foil team at the 1980 Olympics. At those competitions, he also won gold in the individual competition. In two years, the most terrible episode in the history of fencing will happen to him. As part of the USSR national team, he went to the World Cup in Rome.

During the team tournament against Germany, Smirnov met with Matthias Behr: a mutual attack, the opponent's blade breaks, the stump pierces the mask and enters the left eye socket. Smirnov is taken to the hospital, where he is immersed in a state of artificial coma. It was impossible to save the athlete. The blade 14 centimeters entered the brain. Eight days later, Vladimir was disconnected from the apparatus.

This tragedy led to changes in the equipment: the protection of the masks was strengthened, the blades became more flexible and began to break less often. The loads on the tip of the rapier and sword have also changed.

Defenseless Spartakiad

Less than ten deaths have been recorded in the history of sports fencing. Most of these cases were at an adult professional level. However, the last such tragedy occurred at a youth tournament.

In 2004, the All-Ukrainian Spartakiad was held in Kharkov. Once again, a broken rapier became fatal. The blade entered the body of 17-year-old Yevgeny Prokopiev in the right armpit and exited from the opposite side. It pierced both lungs and several large blood vessels. The youth could not be saved.

Prokopyev did not have full equipment according to European standards, in particular, a cubby that should protect against such blows. They say that all the athletes competed at these competitions without braces. After that, if the participants lacked any necessary element of the form, tournaments began to be canceled.

Dangerous transparent masks

The equipment of fencers has been modernized over time. But not all innovations took root. In 2010, transparent masks began to appear at competitions. Fencing began to lose entertainment and, as one of the consequences, the number of events in the Olympic program. The new form element was supposed to increase this entertainment. Now the fans could see the eyes and emotions of the athletes, and the fencers had an increased view.

But then the first disadvantages were discovered. When hit in the glass part, not all injections are fixed. In addition, blows to the mask left marks on it, which were very disturbing during the battle. The incident at the European Junior Championships in Denmark finally buried the novelty.

In the 1/32 finals of foil fencers, Latvian David Gasilovsky met with Italian Francesco Trani. In one of the episodes, the transparent glass on Gasilovsky's mask was pierced by a blade. A fragment inflicted a wound in the athlete's mouth. The Latvian did not receive any serious injuries - after providing medical assistance, the meeting was continued, but for International Federation fencing of this occasion was enough to return to the classic lattice masks.

Equipment from bruises will not save

Any modern fencing coach explains to the parents who brought the child to the section that the blade can leave a maximum bruise on the body, but not pierce it. The outfit is fully protective. Each type of weapon has its own types of bruises.

If they prick with a sword, it hurts at one point. Terrible pain! And after the blows of the saber, the whole back burns. It's a more pleasant pain, isn't it? At least the usual one. So I always wondered: how do epee fencers endure such pain? And they don’t understand how you can adapt to our feelings, - eight-time world champion Alexei Yakimenko told SE.

Fencers competed at the very first modern Olympic Games (1896). Fencing is one of the four sports included in the program of all the Olympics without exception. Participants in the 1896 Olympic Games competed in rapier and saber wrestling (only men). The Frenchman J.-A.Gravelott became the strongest among foil fencers, the Greek I.Georgiadis became the strongest among saber fencers.

Another feature of fencing as Olympic discipline lies in the fact that already at the very first Olympic Games, professionals (fencing instructors) - the so-called masters - were allowed to participate. This peculiar privilege was noted in the rules developed by the founder of modern Olympism, Baron P. de Coubertin. Master foil fencers took part in the Games of 1896 and 1900. In 1900 they were joined by fencers and saber fencers, who also competed at the intermediate Olympic Games of 1906.

Since 1904, the team championship in foil fencing has been played at the Olympic Games (the first champions were the Cuban team), since 1906 - in saber fencing (Germany). Sword competitions were also added to the program: since 1900 - personal (R.Fonst, Cuba), since 1906 - team (France).

Women first took part in the Olympic fencing competitions (foil) in 1924 (the Dane E. Osier became the winner). Team foil competitions were included in the program in 1960 (the first champions were athletes from the USSR; at present, the women's team foil competition is excluded from the program). Olympic program). Since 1996, women have also competed in epee fencing (in Atlanta, the French women excelled: both in the team and in the individual competition - L. Flezzel). At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, competitions among saber fencers in the individual competition were held for the first time (M.Zagunis, USA won).

There are among Olympic champions in fencing their champions. Italian N. Nadi is the only fencer who won 5 gold medals on one Olympic tournament(in 1920): in individual - foil and saber - and all three team types of the program (he received another gold medal at the Games in 1912 for winning the foil tournament). His compatriot E. Manjarotti collected the largest collection of Olympic awards among all fencers - 13 (6 + 5 + 2), the athlete won them at five Olympic Games (1936-1960) in duels (individual and team) on a sword and foil. The Hungarian saber fencer A. Gerevich is the only athlete in history who has won six Olympics in a row (from 1932 to 1960), while in 1948 he won gold both in personal and team competitions, and received the last of his highest awards in 50 years. Another well-known Hungarian saber fencer R. Karpaty participated in four Games and won 6 gold medals.

It should be noted that until the mid-1950s, the fencers of Hungary (saber), as well as Italy and France (rapier and epee) were unconditional favorites Olympic competitions- and world fencing in general. (For example, Hungarian saber fencers won nine gold medals in team competition at the Olympic Games between 1908 and 1960 - they won another title in 1988). But in con. In the 1950s and 1960s, they had serious competitors, primarily in the form of athletes from the USSR, as well as fencers from Germany, Poland and some other countries. The team of our foil fencers set a collective record by winning the Olympic tournament four times (in 1960, 1968, 1972 and 1976).

Fencing - olympic sport, in which rivals fight with the help of special sports melee weapons, which are completely safe. Ordinary swordsmanship is not at all safe, because it is a martial discipline that was actively used during military operations in the past. But as happened with many martial arts, this discipline today has also become exclusively sporting in nature.

Fencing game participants

212 men and women will come to the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, there will be 106 people each. According to the results of the competition, 10 sets of medals will be awarded, 5 for women and 5 for men. One country can nominate no more than 16 fencers, and no more than 8 of them are women and men.

The International Fencing Federation uses the principle of discipline rotation for a competition such as the Olympics. The 2016 Summer Olympics will not offer the same fencing disciplines as they did at the London Games 4 years ago. Then the command saber was for men, and the command rapier for women. In Rio, men will have a team sword and women will have a team saber.

Disciplines common to men and women:

• Sword;
• Command sword;
• Rapier;
• Saber.

Participants of the Summer Olympic Games must prove themselves in order to qualify for the Olympics. For this, the Olympic qualification of the competition is provided, for each continent it has its own. All competitions are regarded as a qualifying tournament. The selection is also influenced by the world ranking of athletes.

Fencing competition calendar

Competitions for those who are engaged in fencing will be held from 6 to 14 August. The finals of competitions in a certain discipline will be held daily. Schedule:

• August 6: Women's individual épée;
• 7 August: Men's individual foil championship;
• August 8: Women's individual saber championship;
• August 9: individual epee, men;
• August 10: women's individual foil championship, men's individual saber championship;
• August 11: Women's Team Epee Championship;
• August 12: men's foil team championship;
• August 13: Women's team saber championship;
• August 14: men's team epee championship.

In each discipline, to win, you need to inflict a certain number of blows or injections on the opponent first. A certain period of time is given for the competition, after which the fight stops.

Athletes compete in protective clothing: they have jackets made of metallic fabric and hard mesh masks. The hand that does not hold a weapon must be wearing a glove. The weapon is connected to the electrical panel. If a fencer strikes an opponent, then this is fixed on the shield, a light comes on. If the blow was not powerful enough, for example, when the athlete only slid over the opponent, the touch is not recorded by the electric system.

A rapier and a sword involve inflicting injections, but with a saber it is already possible to inflict a chopping blow. Each type of weapon has a guard that protects the working hand from damage. For disciplines, the parts of the body allowed for strikes differ.

For the duel, a fencing track is used. Its length is 14 meters.

Medalists

Men

Women