IOC Relations with FIE

[goldbaker]

Since the other threads are getting crowded, and this is a little different, I hope you all don't mind a new one.

Does anyone know the history of relations between the IOC and FIE? I've only been following this stuff for the last few years, and it seems like relations are strained at best.

Other sports have medals by the dozen according to weight class, or differences in equipment(boxing, judo, tae kwan do, wrestling, greco-roman wrestling, weightlifting, rowing, shooting, gymnastics, etc.) and the IOC is adding new sports at a rapid rate (curling, syncronized swimming and diving, trampoline, short track speed skating -- I've even heard of serious discussions about ballroom dancing). Also, they don't seem to have a problem adding women's categories in other events (hockey, weightlifting, etc.)

They ought to be able to give us a couple of extra medals. They've already cut down the number of competitors allowed and tried to push the Lexan masks on everybody. Why do we get picked on? It can't have that much to do with TV coverage or sponsorship, because there are plenty of other "minor" sports that don't draw much money.

Anyway, I was just curious if anyone knows why this stuff seems to happen to fencing when other events are being added everyday.

[edew]

People should realize that the main sticking point (hah!) to better fencing representation in the Olympics comes from no other than the USOC. Countries like France and such love to see more fencing in the Olympics because, as Veeco mentioned in another thread, they win bunches of medals. Countries like France and Italy have almost zero chance of winning a medal in any other sport other than fencing, so of course they'll schmooze and do what will benefit fencing for the Olympics.

The USOC, on the other hand, have very little regard for fencing, despite its PR stance. Of course, among the weaker sports, fencing is probably best off because of (ahem!) the organized administration, continual show of international success (this year's women's foil team bronze, for example), and other positives. However, if the USOC has its way, fencing would be a goner.

Unfortunately (or not), the USOC has a lot of pull with the IOC, and I don't doubt that they had a hand in pushing for this rather odd requirement for fencing (200 participants max, 10 medals max), and most likely the latter. The USOC would rather see fifteen more track and field event categories or mixed basketball or something to get another for-sure medal than to help expand and improve all sports.

Oh well. Don't blame the IOC so quickly, though they are the buck-stoppers.

[damianip]

[quote]Originally posted by edew:
<strong>People should realize that the main sticking point (hah!) to better fencing representation in the Olympics comes from no other than the USOC. Countries like France and such love to see more fencing in the Olympics because, as Veeco mentioned in another thread, they win bunches of medals. Countries like France and Italy have almost zero chance of winning a medal in any other sport other than fencing, so of course they'll schmooze and do what will benefit fencing for the Olympics.
</strong><hr></blockquote>

Eric,

The medal counts for the top medal winners:

Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
United States 40 24 33 97
Russia 32 28 28 88
China 28 16 15 59
Australia 16 25 17 58
Germany 13 17 26 56
France 13 14 11 38
Italy 13 8 13 34
Cuba 11 11 7 29
Great Britain 11 10 7 28
South Korea 8 10 10 28
Romania 11 6 9 26
Netherlands 12 9 4 25
Ukraine 3 10 10 23
Japan 5 8 5 18


I actually think that the French and Italian federations don't have much care about fencing either. It's still a minor sport, even in these countries.

Paolo

[Craig]

[quote]
Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
United States 40 24 33 97
Russia 32 28 28 88
Germany 13 17 26 56
France 13 14 11 38
Italy 13 8 13 34
<hr></blockquote>

Fencing-Only Medals (G S B T)
ITALY 3 0 2 5 (23% of gold, 15% of total is Fencing)
RUSSIA 3 0 1 4
FRANCE 1 4 1 6 (7% gold, 16% of total is Fencing)

[edew]

Thanks, Craig.

I think that's the issue why Italy and France and other strong fencing countries would like to keep as many fencing events in the Olympics. If the US were equally strong, you can bet you booty that they'll be Men's Team, Women's Team, Mixed Team, double bronze for third, and all sorts of other things to jack up the medal count.

[soos]

anyway, thx edew for the "zero chance to win" ... i dont know if u guys seen anything else than US in OG on tv ... but even is fencing provide our 16% of medals (like craig said) ... the other 84% !!! come from ther other sports where we have "almost zero chance to win".

At the end, our main sports to olympic r :

fencing, judo and cycling (but watch the craig statistics ... thats not all).

But, just to come back again about our "zero chance", let me tell u few things, we have each year plenty of medal in WC in lots of individual sports ...

+ we r WC and EC in football (soccer), we did 2nd at WC in rugby, we r WC in handball (men), 2nd at WC in handball (women), and did 2nd at OG in basketball.

thats for the teams sport.

so edew, next time u insult french sport like this i ll be there to tell u few things ...

i m sorry for italia , dont know exactly wot r their results, but it seems they r pretty like us , and dont deserve either such insults.

At the end, if i was to insult US like u did with france and italy, i could say that u guys only win ur medal in swimming and athletics, and thats it ... but i didnt till u posted this great "zero chance" message.

[soos]

Ah, yeah, thx to damianip for those statictics .. and damianip, u r pretty right ! here fencing is a minor sport, like it is a minor sport in the world... just we r stronger than others .. and thats it. France doesnt defend fencing at all, just french fencing defends french fencing. And here ppl just care about us(fencing) when we provide 7-10 medals for olympics ...

cose u can be sure of sthg : french may lose anything (even if they r the strongers the whole year in some sports), but fencing, judo and cycling will always rectify the shot if necessary.

Finally thats not france, but french fencing that wants to keep the medals in OG cose thats a fact here (its in statictics), as veeco said, every 4 years, after OG, our clubs increase the numbers of newbies of 30% !!! so if we lose medals, we lose new fencers then clubs cant pretend to "fight" with other sport, then thats a bad thing. Pretty simple.

U know, this is pissing us off, but thats the truth : for OG, france usually says : "yeahhhh !! we won another gold or medal", but they almost never say "yeahhhhh, fencing won another medal !".
Journalist r not fair, instead of congratulating the sport, they mainly look at medals table to compete vs other countries ! thats a **** but i suppose thats the way OG goes now ...

PS : for edew (again), we arent to bad too in winter sport like skiing and snwoboarding...

[edew]

I didn't mean to insult french athletics. It's just that among the "glamour" sports of the OG (gymnastics, track and field, crying during an up-close-and-personal two-hour feature), most western european countries are not well represented. There aren't too many divers or swimmers from the western european countries who do well.

However, they (the western european countries) do well in sports like yachting, canoeing, equestrian, shooting, and other sports which barely get any air-time on US coverage (damn those blasted NBC DICK-head Eber-I've got no-sol).

Yeah, 16% of all french medals were won in fencing. That's a pretty large number. What other one sport can dominate the medals count for any other country? I don't think the US could pull off such a count for even a medals-heavy sport like track.

[Zelda]

Well I was gonna stay out of this, but Australia only ever excels in Swimming consistantly. Hell even WITH the chance to gain auto entry for fencers we didnt field a full team!