Fencing, a historically niche sport, has gained worldwide attention and traction with athletes and fans.
Fencing is a dynamic combat sport requiring lightning-fast sword movements via agile athletes, sudden deceptions, and quick-attacks exploiting an opponent’s mistake. Fencing is best described as a tactical match of physical high speed chess.
In recent years, a major funding and promotional boost in the U.S. has brought this once reputedly elitist sport to the masses, with efforts like the Fencing the Gap initiative expanding access for previously underrepresented communities.
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Looking ahead to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, U.S. Fencers who made breakthroughs at the 2024 Paris Olympics will seek to build on their momentum and expand their medal count.
2024 Paris Games Success
At the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, U.S. athlete Lee Kiefer became the first American fencer to win multiple Olympic gold medals, and individual silver medalist Lauren Scruggs closed out the team competition for the U.S. to secure America’s first team fencing gold in women’s foil.
Now, with preparations for the first U.S.-hosted Summer Olympics in three decades underway, the American team is looking to ride the crest of its recent success and growing popularity at Los Angeles 2028.
The history-setting performance at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris has created momentum and attracted new fans, including expanded interest when Lauren Scruggs became the first Black American woman to win an individual medal in fencing in the women’s foil final.
“Fencing is largely, certainly has been, a non-Black sport so I hope to inspire young Black girls to get into fencing so that they can have a place in the sport,” Scruggs said after her 2024 win. Another U.S. female athlete, Lee Kiefer, made history at the Paris Games by becoming the first American fencer to win three Olympic gold medals. Kiefer achieved her breakout success after going up against traditionally dominant European competitors.
“My first gold [at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics], I was not expecting myself to be able to compete like that with the Russians and the Italians. So it’s a pleasant surprise,” Kiefer said after her 2024 victory in Paris.
The Growing Global Popularity of Fencing
Fencing has steadily gained ground not only in the U.S. but around the world, reflected in the rise of young international stars like Egypt’s Ziad El Sissy and Japan’s Koki Kano. This has largely come about thanks to increased promotional efforts at the national levels, driven by the “universalization” strategy of the International Fencing Federation (FIE), the sport’s global governing body.
The globalization of fencing marks a major shift from its traditional role as an elite European sport. While it has been a fixture of the Olympics since their modern revival in 1896, the establishment of the FIE by a group of European powers in 1913 and the subsequent dominance of European players gave fencing an aura of Old-World exclusivity for many years after.
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International Fencing Federation (FIE)
In recent decades, the FIE has led a drive to remove barriers to the sport on a global scale. It has done so through training and financial support programs launched during the presidency of Russian-Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who first took the helm of the Federation in 2008 and has been re-elected as president four times since.
Usmanov – a former member of Uzbekistan’s national fencing team who was inspired to take up fencing after reading The Three Musketeers as a child – has been credited with expanding the sport’s geographic footprint and making fencing more inclusive and competitive. As a result of this approach, the FIE today has grown to comprise 156 national federations from countries around the world.
Where European countries once dominated fencing competitions, athletes from other regions have now exceled at the highest Olympic level. Venezuela, Norway and Egypt won their first fencing medals at the 2012 Olympic Games. Fencers from Cape Verde, Kenya, Niger, Rwanda and Cyprus made their Olympics debuts in 2024 in Paris, while athletes from Tunisia and Egypt were among the medalists there.
The rise of U.S. fencing has also gone hand in hand with the FIE’s expansion efforts, which have supported the sport’s development in the United States. In April of this year, the FIE and USA Fencing, the sport’s U.S. governing body and an FIE member, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate on athlete promotion and raise the visibility of fencing in the run-up to LA 2028.
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“This agreement puts into writing the collaborative relationship that USA Fencing and the FIE have enjoyed for decades,” said Phil Andrews, CEO of USA Fencing. “The FIE runs fencing around the world, and USA Fencing runs it at home. We have an extraordinary story to tell, and we’re going to tell it better as partners than alone.”
Russian-Ukraine Conflict Has Impacted Fencing
The agreement was signed on the FIE side by Interim President Abdelmoneim El Husseiny, an Egyptian former fencer who has continued the FIE’s universalization drive after Usmanov suspended his duties following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the adoption of U.S. and EU sanctions against him and his relatives (the EU has since lifted sanctions from Usmanov’s two sisters).
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But sanctions against the head of fencing’s governing body – and its largest patron – raise questions about future funding for the sport.
Usmanov was re-elected FIE president in 2024 with the backing of over two-thirds of the national federations but again suspended his powers, saying he took this step to prevent sanctions from affecting its operations.
Sanctions against Usmanov are especially critical given that fencing has never been able to boast advertising revenues or mass familiarity comparable to those of other sports, making the fencing community more dependent on the support of a passionate patron. For nearly 15 years, it had advanced in large part due to Usmanov’s personal funding, charisma and his professional ties in the sporting world.
In a separate but illustrative case, the United States in 2015 sanctioned the long-serving president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, amid Syria-related restrictions. He kept his title but stepped away from financing and daily operations until FIDE’s bank accounts were frozen several years later, prompting Ilyumzhunov to leave his post for the organization’s sake.
In July 2025, the U.S. reversed its decision and lifted sanctions against Ilyumzhunov, giving rise to speculations that he may run for FIDE president again. A similar thing could happen if sanctions against Usmanov were lifted, and the 72-year-old would return to managing the FIE – along with his funding.
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In the meantime, the FIE appears undeterred in its commitment to show the world the best of what fencing can offer at the upcoming games in Los Angeles. Whether a possible resolution to the sanctions saga will give a renewed boost to the sport’s momentum – both in the United States and worldwide – remains to be seen.
