Let’s Watch the Olympic Games Together!

By OlympiaFencingCenter Club News, Uncategorized

No cable, no problem!

Take a look at this article on how you can too watch the games without breaking the bank: NBC, Peacock, Hulu, or online, NBCOlympics.com, and US Today live stream.

After a yearlong delay, the Olympic Games kicked off on July 23rd, with the Opening Ceremony, add will run through August 8.
Extraordinary safety measures to keep the athletes safe include live audiences (with a few exceptions). On the bright side, five new games make the debut at the 2021 Olympics: Skateboarding, Surfing, Sport climbing, Karate, and including the return of Baseball/Softball after it was cut from the past few summer games in 2018.

Fencing at the Tokyo Olympics

The Olympic Games 2020 feature 12 fencing events and will mark the first time both individual and team fencing competitions will be held in all three weapons, for both men’s and women’s.

Here is the video where Team USA enters the Olympic Stadium.

The women’s épée team won gold for the first time ever at the world championships in 2018.
The épée team consists of Olympic medalists Courtney Hurley, Kelley Hurley, and Olympian Katharine (Kat) Holmes, in the individual spots, with Anna van Brummen as the replacement.
In men’s épée, Jake Hoyle, Curtis McDowald, and Yeisser Ramirez, all make their first Olympic Team in individual spots.

Take a look at this analysis of the entire US Fencing Team, in all three weapons, in the preview of the games.
Also, here is a depictive video on the FIE Fencing Channel, on YouTube, where you can see the fencers presented individually.

To closely follow the USA fencing results, check out the USA Fencing Tokyo Tracker, or NBC’s Olympic Fencing page, both great resources to keep an eye on.

Here is the fencing games schedule, for all three weapons.
The times are posted in both JST (Japan Standard Time) and American Eastern Time (EST).

July 23rd at 8 pm EST (July 24 at 9 am Tokyo time)
- Men’s Saber Individual
- Women’s Épée Individual
- Men’s Épée Individual
- Women’s Foil Individual
July 25th at 8 pm EST (July 26 at 9 am Tokyo time)
- Men’s Foil Individual
- Women’s Saber Individual
July 26th at 8 pm EST (July 27 at 9 am Tokyo time)
- Women’s ÉpéeTeam
July 27th at 9 pm EST (July 28 at 10 am Tokyo time)
- Men’s Saber Team
July 28th at 8 pm EST (July 29 at 9 am Tokyo time)
- Women’s Foil Team
July 29th at 9 pm EST (July 30 at 10 am Tokyo time)
- Men’s ÉpéeTeam
July 30th at 9 pm EST (July 31 at 10 am Tokyo time)
- Women’s Saber Team
July 31st at 8 pm EST (July 28 at 9 am Tokyo time)
- Men’s Foil Team

For those new to fencing, here is a funny but instructive video about the basics of the sport, on the Olympic Channel, on Youtube: One Minute, One Sport/Fencing
We like it especially because it’s kid-friendly!

There is also included a short history of fencing, starting with its presence at the oldest modern Olympic Games, in 1869, and its evolution to today’s sport.

The Olympic results in fencing, both individual and teams as of July 28, 2021, are as follow

Men’s Épée Individual Medals & Rankings

Romain Cannone, France
Gergely Siklosi, Hungary
Igor Reizlin, Ukraine
Andrea Santarelli, Italy
Sergey Bida, ROC
Masaru Yamada, Japan
Sangyoung Park, Korea
Mohamed Elsayed, Egypt

The best results for the Americans are Curtis McDowald, 24^th, and Jacob Hoyle, 26^th.

Women’s Épée event, Kelly Hurley lost for top 16 to Erika Kirpu, Estonia, by one touch.
Kelly Hurley final score, 8-15 with Chinese Mingye Zhu, and Kat Holmes, 12-15 with Sera Song, Korea.

The 2020 Olympic Gold medalist is Yiwen Sun, China, followed in the second place by the Romanian Ana Maria Popescu, and Katrina Lehis, Estonia.
Katrina is the first fencer from Estonia to win an Olympic medal.

Women’s Épée teams’ events: Estonia earning the first ever fencing gold against South Korea.
The Épée US Team: Katharine Holmes, Courtney Hurley, and Kelley Hurley lost to South Korea 38-33 in the quarterfinals, and ultimately finished 5th with a 33-26 win over Hong Kong, and a 33-26 win over Poland.
Women’s Foil: American Lee Kiefer makes history with gold medal in individual foil
Women’s Saber: Mariel Zagunis ended the individual event of her fifth Olympic Games with a fifth place result.
In Men’s Saber, World No. 2 Eli Dershwitz (Sherborn, MA)) ended up the individual event with a ninth place finish.
Men’s Épée, Daryl Homer places 23^rd.

We find the coverage of these 2021 Olympics Games amazing in the way of using all the unprecedented resources that an advanced
information technology era offers, and giving everyone the chance to closely watch what’s going to get down in history as the “Post-pandemic Games”.

We hope that all the above have been helpful in better understanding fencing, its history, and, hopefully, more people will take this opportunity to try it!
We are in the greater Boston area, and our club offers a Free Trial Class for all ages and body types. Everyone can fence!