The goal of the swordsman is to deliver a thrust to the opponent and avoid the thrust himself. The victory is awarded to the one who first inflicts a certain number of injections on the opponent in accordance with the rules or inflicts more such injections in a set period of time.
swordsmen wear white uniform because, until electronic scoring equipment was invented, injections were imprinted on a white surface thanks to an ink-soaked piece of cotton cloth fastened to the tip of the weapon.
OLYMPIC GAMES
Fencing has been included in the program of the Olympic Games since 1896 - individual competitions for men on rapiers and sabers, since 1900 - on swords (in 1904 and on sticks); in 1896 and 1900, professionals (the so-called maestro) took part in the competition. Since 1912, the team championship has been played on swords and sabers, since 1920 - on rapiers. Since 1924, an individual championship has been held, since 1960 - a team championship among women in foil, since 1996 - an individual and team championship in swords, in 2004 an individual championship was held, and in 2008 a team championship in saber fencing among women.
Record holder for the won number Olympic medals is the Italian fencer Edoardo Mangiarotti, who from 1936 to 1960. won on Olympic Games 13 medals: 6 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze. Another great fencer, Aladar Gerevich from Hungary, won three medals less, but he has more gold medals - 7. In women, two Italians lead in the list of champions - Valentina Vezzali, 5 times Olympic champion, and Giovanna Trillini, who won 4 Olympic gold medals.
RUSSIA
There are many wonderful blade masters in the Soviet Union and Russia, there are many double and triple Olympic champions. But only four fencers have the title of 4-time Olympic champions. They are foil fencer Elena Belova and saber fencers Viktor Sidyak, Viktor Krovopuskov and Stanislav Pozdnyakov.
Photo - Sergey Kivrin and Andrey Golovanov
The goal of the fencer is to stab (hit) the opponent and avoid the stab (hit) himself. The victory is awarded to the one who first inflicts a certain number of injections (strikes) on the opponent in accordance with the rules or inflicts more such injections in a set period of time. Modern fencing consists of three disciplines: rapier, sword, saber. The length of the sports rapier is 110 cm, its weight is 500 g, the rapier's hand is protected by a round guard with a diameter of 12 cm. The length of the sports saber is 105 cm, its weight is 500 g, it is also equipped with a guard, but differs from the rapier by a blade of trapezoidal variable section. The saber is the only kind in sports fencing in which, in addition to injections, chopping blows can be applied. The length of a sports sword is 110 cm, its weight is 770 g, the sword has a flexible trihedral blade and a round guard with a diameter of 13.5 cm. Foil fencers are allowed injections only in the body, epee fencers - in all parts of the body, except for the back of the head not protected by a mask, injections for saber fencers ( blows) to all parts of the body above the waist. Fights are held on a fencing track with a length of 14 m and a width of 1.8 - 2 m.
Athletes perform in protective jackets covered with metallized fabric and masks with a metal mesh and a glove on an armed hand. The pricks and blows inflicted by the fencers are recorded by lamps on an electric apparatus. They are fixed on the basis of an electrical circuit passing through the swordsman's weapon and his clothes, connected to the apparatus by a wired system.
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 personal 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 of the 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 soft tissue back and out of the 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 individual competitions. 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 breaks through 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
Lethal outcomes for history sports fencing fewer than ten have been recorded. Most of these cases were in adults. 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.
Prokopiev 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, competitions began to appear transparent masks. 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).
Among the Olympic fencing champions there are record holders. The Italian N. Nadi is the only fencer who won 5 gold medals at one Olympic tournament (in 1920): in personal - 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 among all fencers Olympic awards- 13 (6 + 5 + 2), the athlete won them at five Olympic Games (1936-1960) in duels (individual and team) on the 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 in both the individual and team competitions, and the last of his top awards received at age 50. 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, between 1908 and 1960, Hungarian saber fencers won gold nine times in team competition at the Olympic Games - 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).