Qualification for Fencing at Paris 2024

The qualification in fencing for the Olympic Games 2024 in Paris is not easily explained. To begin with, the qualification is split into teams and individuals.

The system is explained most easily by starting with the teams. The top 4 teams are directly qualified. Then, the top team from each of the four zones (Europe, Asia/Oceania, Americas, Africa) is qualified, as long as it is placed 16th or better. If one or more of the zones do not have a team in 5th to 16th place, the best so-far not-qualified team(s) in the rankings are qualified. This results in a total of eight teams with each team nominating four fencers, three of which also start in the individual competition.

For the individual competition, three fencers of each qualified team are qualified. Then all already qualified nations are removed from the rankings and only the best fencer from each nation is kept. The two best Europeans, the two best Asians, the best American and the best African fencer are then qualified. Finally, all countries with no qualified athlete can send one athlete to the zonal qualifiers. At each of the zonal qualifiers, only the winner will qualify for the Olympic Games.

After mastering the understanding of this system myself, I spend so much time explaining people these rules that I decided it would be easier to publish the current rankings on a website. To do so, a script fetches the current rankings from the FIE webpage, filters the events that took place after 3rd of April 2023 (start of the qualification) and creates a ranking. Then, the previously explained rules are applied to determine who would qualify currently.

Of course, there are some caveats I cannot take into account. First, there are 6 additional places for the host nation France (however they cannot start more than three fencers in any given discipline). Second, there is one wildcard per gender. Fourth, if a nation qualifies with a team they can freely choose 4 athletes but here the top 4 athletes are indicated.

As this website is only a fun side project of mine, all data is without warranty. However, if you think I made some mistakes or just want to give me some feedback, .