FIE and its members step up preparations for World Fencing Day

After the huge success of the first dedicated event last year, World Fencing Day 2018 will take place this year on Saturday 8 September with countries worldwide taking part in promoting the Olympic sport of fencing.

It is designed as a day when the focus on competitive swordsmanship reaches children, communities, schools, and new spectators and audiences who will discover a sport steeped in history and but one which is also focused on embracing the future.

Last year’s inaugural World Fencing Day featured a host of different events in a variety of settings across the world to fully showcase what fencing is about and how people young and old can get involved and enioy the benefits of participation. This included Olympic and World Champion fencers demonstrating their talents to schoolchildren, demonstrations of fencing in public plazas and shopping malls, fencing clubs opening their doors to the public to try a duel for free, bouting on the beaches of California, and even a sky-high fencing match atop a 192-metre tower above Auckland, New Zealand.

The FIE is celebrating its 105th anniversary this year and in cooperation with its 153 member countries is encouraging even more participation right from grassroots level upwards. Fencing federations, clubs, individuals, teams, schools, manufacturers, and elite champions will join together to introduce and share their enthusiasm and dedication and encourage fencers of the future to come forward and try for themselves.

Fencing is unique because it blends a rich history with an exciting future. With the “sport for all” mantra and hashtag as the driving theme for this year’s celebration, World Fencing Day 2018 will engage all the fencing ambassadors across the world to uplift the benefits associated with sports participation and shares strategies that can help increase access to sports for youth. This effort focuses on emphasizing that core theme through encouraging people of all ages, genders, ability levels, and backgrounds to participate in sports through fencing.

World Fencing Day is about fun, learning, and reaching the world to build interest, excitement and attention in fencing, and the FIE and all its federations and confederations across the globe are clearly geared up and set to showcase that on 8 September.