DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - What the Olympics tells us about the state of world fencing.

**Imalaycle** · 09-01-2012, 05:41 AM

Like I said on another thread, the French aren't struggling. They just had one off competition, which lacked at least one, if not two, events where they would've expected to be in with a shout of the medals. You can't say the whole system is falling down just on one tournament.

I'm not, I have no doubt whatsoever that they will be back, however I think you have to acknowledge (and speaking to French fencers, they do) that their results at senior level over this last olympic cycle have been nothing like as good as usual.

The omission of men's epee from the team undoubtedly cost them a medal. The omission of the women's sabre probably didn't. But regardless, in Beijing or Athens they had a wider pool of experienced fencers who could all pick up medals. Here to be honest the only realistic shouts were the two men's epeeists, LePechoux, the women's foil team and Apithy. Compare that with having both Jeannet brothers, Robieri, Pillet, Lopez, a slightly younger Flessel, LePechoux, Guyart still in good form, Touya, Perrus etc in Beijing and I think you'll agree there's quite a difference in terms of the number of shots on a medal.

With most of the above dominating for so long there hasn't been much space for the new talent to come through, which has had a knock-on effect on results now that the older fencers have retired/got too old. The French have obviously realised this which is why they are blooding their younger fencers in the team events - men's sabre in Legnano was reportedly a young team, as was men's epee, men's foil here at the Olympics didn't include Guyart and Sintes got taken off after one match etc etc.

They'll be back for sure, but there is a clear recognition IMO by the FFE that the mountain of success of the past decade has come at the price of a sudden drop in results which will probably last until Rio now while they bring the new boys and girls through. Hence my comment about the administrative system needing to be right - if you've been the coach of a senior fencer in the team in the past few years then it's probably been right for you, less so if you've been the coach of a fencer trying to break through into the senior squad.

Field of one I suspect. Spain? Germany and France as well IMO. Forget the flashy fencing facilities for a second, just look at the overall economy, the sporting culture (when kids start sport, how many training sessions they do, what their expectations are, how much parents are willing to spend etc). You'll never find a country that's identical, but pick the closest match and poach/train your coaches their, because that gives them the best practical chance of being able to apply their skills in the UK.

09-01-2012, 05:41 AM	#13
Imalaycle Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 392 Senior Member	Like I said on another thread, the French aren't struggling. They just had one off competition, which lacked at least one, if not two, events where they would've expected to be in with a shout of the medals. You can't say the whole system is falling down just on one tournament. I'm not, I have no doubt whatsoever that they will be back, however I think you have to acknowledge (and speaking to French fencers, they do) that their results at senior level over this last olympic cycle have been nothing like as good as usual. The omission of men's epee from the team undoubtedly cost them a medal. The omission of the women's sabre probably didn't. But regardless, in Beijing or Athens they had a wider pool of experienced fencers who could all pick up medals. Here to be honest the only realistic shouts were the two men's epeeists, LePechoux, the women's foil team and Apithy. Compare that with having both Jeannet brothers, Robieri, Pillet, Lopez, a slightly younger Flessel, LePechoux, Guyart still in good form, Touya, Perrus etc in Beijing and I think you'll agree there's quite a difference in terms of the number of shots on a medal. With most of the above dominating for so long there hasn't been much space for the new talent to come through, which has had a knock-on effect on results now that the older fencers have retired/got too old. The French have obviously realised this which is why they are blooding their younger fencers in the team events - men's sabre in Legnano was reportedly a young team, as was men's epee, men's foil here at the Olympics didn't include Guyart and Sintes got taken off after one match etc etc. They'll be back for sure, but there is a clear recognition IMO by the FFE that the mountain of success of the past decade has come at the price of a sudden drop in results which will probably last until Rio now while they bring the new boys and girls through. Hence my comment about the administrative system needing to be right - if you've been the coach of a senior fencer in the team in the past few years then it's probably been right for you, less so if you've been the coach of a fencer trying to break through into the senior squad. Field of one I suspect. Spain? Germany and France as well IMO. Forget the flashy fencing facilities for a second, just look at the overall economy, the sporting culture (when kids start sport, how many training sessions they do, what their expectations are, how much parents are willing to spend etc). You'll never find a country that's identical, but pick the closest match and poach/train your coaches their, because that gives them the best practical chance of being able to apply their skills in the UK.
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