Fencing at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Despite attempts from the International Fencing Federation to increase the number of events to twelve, the number remained restricted to 10: three individual and two team events for men and women each. Because of this, the team events rotated again, which the men contesting the foil and sabre (was épée and sabre in 2008), and the women foil and épée (was foil and sabre).

In a sport traditionally dominated by France, Hungary, Italy, and to a lesser extent Germany and Russia, non-European fencers came to the fore. South Korea won 6 medals, including two golds, having only earned three Olympic medals earlier, while China added two titles. Venezuela won its first ever fencing medal, as did Egypt and Norway, while Japan earned only its second ever medal. By contrast, Hungary won only one medal (although it was a gold), and Germany only two. Worst off was France, which did not bring home any medal. The nation had not failed to win a gold medal since the 1976 Olympics, and its last Olympics without medals had been in Rome 1960.

Two events had no European fencers earning medals at all (men’s foil, women’s team épée), which had previously only happened at the 1904 Olympics (when only US and Cuban fencers competed) and in the 2004 and 2008 women’s individual sabre.