UK Sport

Sport-by-sport - Fencing

Choose Sport

Olympic Paralympic

Laurence Halsted
Getty images

Chairman	Keith Smith

Chief Executive	Piers Martin

Performance Director	Alex Newton

Sport Profile

Funding Award (2009-2013)	£2,529,335
Performance Target for London 2012	0-1 medals 1 x 6th - 12th (Individual)1 x 4th - 8th (Team)
Podium Athletes	0
Past Performances
Press Officer	Karim Bashir
Press Officer tel	07855 252 546
Website	http://www.britishfencing.com
National governing body	British Fencing Association

“Without the funding that we have received from the National Lottery there would be no way the fencers would be as prepared as they are for London. For the first time the performance programme has full length Olympic pistes, a comprehensive and integrated science and medicine programme and dedicated coaches which would not have been possible without the public buying lottery tickets to support our athletes. Thank you!”
Fencing Performance Director Alex Newton

Great Britain has not won an Olympic medal in Fencing since Bill Hoskyns took silver in Tokyo in 1964 but Team GB are taking a strong squad to London 2012 and have high hopes of reaching the podium for the first time in forty-eight years. Since 2005 UK Sport has invested over £5.5 million into the sport, which now has 21 athletes on the World Class Performance Programme (WCPP).

Richard Kruse and Natalia Sheppard both qualified automatically for the Games and will be joined by another British eight athletes in London. Kruse, who is one of four “Podium” athletes on the sport’s World Class Performance Programme, has been on the programme for over six years and it will be his third consecutive Olympics. The British team will face tough international competition at 2012, especially from strong fencing nations such as France, Italy, China and the USA.

There are ten gold medals available at London 2012 across the three fencing categories: Epée, Foil and Sabre.

In addition to the support of athletes and their WCPP, Piers Martin, Chief Executive of British Fencing, has taken part in UK Sport’s International Leadership Programme. The Programme seeks to ensure that the UK is able to contribute to the development and governance of international sport via the building of relationships with International Federations and other key international sporting organisations. It is designed to equip participants with the skills they need to become effective cross-cultural communicators able to operate successfully on the international stage.

Did You Know?
Fencing has been on the Olympic programme since the first modern Games in Athens in 1896.

*Accurate as of May 2012