Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. The three disciplines of modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre ; each discipline uses a different kind of blade, which shares the same name, and employs its own rules. Most competitive fencers specialize in one discipline. The modern sport gained prominence near the end of the 19th century and is based on the traditional skill set of swordsmanship. The Italian school altered the historical European martial art of classical fencing, and the French school later refined that system. Scoring points in a fencing competition is done by making contact with an opponent.
Swordsmanship or sword fighting refers to the skills and techniques used in combat and training with any type of sword. The term is modern, and as such was mainly used to refer to smallsword fencing, but by extension it can also be applied to any martial art involving the use of a sword. The formation of the English word "swordsman" is parallel to the Latin word gladiator, a term for the professional fighters who fought against each other and a variety of other foes for the entertainment of spectators in the Roman Empire. The word gladiator itself comes from the Latin word gladius, which is a type of sword.
Historical European martial arts (HEMA) are martial arts of European origin, particularly using arts formerly practised, but having since died out or evolved into very different forms.
The Fédération Internationale d'Escrime, commonly known by the acronym FIE, is the international governing body of Olympic fencing. Today, its head office is at the Maison du Sport International in Lausanne, Switzerland. The FIE is composed of 157 national federations, each of which is recognized by its country's Olympic Committee as the sole representative of Olympic-style fencing in that country.
Britta Heidemann is a German épée fencer. In 2016, Heidemann became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Maria Valentina Vezzali is an Italian politician and retired fencer. As a fencer, Vezzali won six Olympic gold medals and was a 16-time World Champion in foil. She is one of only five athletes in the history of the Summer Olympic Games to have won five medals in the same individual event.
Aida Mohamed is a Hungarian foil fencer, silver medallist at the 1993 World Championships and team gold medallist at the 2007 European Championships. She is the only Hungarian athlete in history to have competed at seven different Olympic Games.
Dmytro Karyuchenko is a Ukrainian épée fencer.
Nikolay Anatolyevich Kovalev is a Russian former sabre fencer. He won a bronze medal in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and a gold medal in the 2014 World Championships in Kazan. He is three-times World team champion and twice European team champion. He is now a coach in California in the United States.
Sergey Aleksandrovich Sharikov, also known as Serguei/Sergei Charikov, was a left-handed Russian Olympic champion sabre fencer. In the Olympics he won two gold medals, a silver medal, and a bronze medal.
The World Fencing Championships is an annual competition in fencing organized by the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime. Contestants may participate in foil, épée, and sabre events.
George Piller was an Olympic and world champion fencer from Hungary in the 1920s and 1930s who became an internationally respected world-class fencing master in Hungary and the United States in the 1950s.
Ana Maria Popescu, formerly known as Ana Maria Brânză, is a Romanian left-handed épée fencer.
The European Fencing Confederation is an international body created in 1991, charged with the promotion and development of fencing in Europe. It organises the European Fencing Championships annually at several levels: cadets (U17), junior (U20), under 23, seniors and veterans.
The European Fencing Championships is an annual top-level European fencing competition organized by the European Fencing Confederation.
Yana Volodymyrivna Shemyakina is a Ukrainian right-handed épée fencer, three-time Olympian, and 2012 individual Olympic champion.
Andrea Cassarà is an Italian left-handed foil fencer, two-time individual European champion, 2011 individual world champion, and three-time Olympics medalist.
Richard Kruse is a former British right-handed foil fencer and four-time Olympian. In 2015, he was part of the Great Britain team that shocked Olympic champions Italy to win the first European Games gold in team foil, the first British gold medal in a team fencing event at World or European level for fifty years. He retired in 2021.
Aleksandra Anna Socha Shelton is a Polish sabre fencer, bronze medal in the 2003 World Fencing Championships, European champion in 2004, and European team in 2008. She represented Poland at the time.
Yannick Borel is a French right-handed épée fencer.
Andrea Cassarà (ITA)
Simon Senft (GER)
Michael Ludwig (AUT)
Sławomir Mocek (POL)
Gábor Boczkó (HUN)
Pavel Kolobkov (RUS)
Mihai Covaliu (ROU)
Volodymyr Lukashenko (UKR)
France 
Niki-Katerina Sidiropoulou (GRE)
Azerbaijan