Almost 30 years ago, the tight-knit sport of fencing suffered a tragic accident with the horrific death of world and Olympic champion Vladimir Smirnov.
While the Soviet fencer’s death at the Rome World Championships in 1982 shocked the sport to its core, the fatal accident proved to be a turning point in making fencing safer.
Smirnov was fencing West Germany’s Matthias Behr in Rome. Both stood over 1.82m tall and were described by coaches and teammates as massively strong and fast, their attacks akin to an oncoming locomotive.
Photo: Reuters
They attacked each other simultaneously in an attempt to establish an advantage, or what is known in fencing as the “right of way,” Smirnov’s former coach Alexander Perekalsky, 87, said in a recent telephone interview from Moscow.
“Smirnov tried to block Behr’s blade with an upward parry, that Behr avoided. Both collided and Behr’s blade broke on Smirnov’s chest and by inertia he continued forward,” Perekalsky said.
“The broken blade hits a brand new mask and goes through, hitting him above the left eye and into his brain,” he added.
Smirnov died about 10 days later after being taken off life support, his death mourned by the entire fencing world.
Behr left fencing in the aftermath of the accident, but returned to win the foil silver at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and headed Germany’s national fencing training center in Tauberbischofsheim.
Ioan Pop, the international technical director for fencing’s governing body (FIE), said the current standard of safety in the sport owed much to the accident 30 years ago.
“It was absolutely the accident and the death of Smirnov in 1982, in Rome,” said Romanian Pop, who won two Olympic team bronze medals in saber.
Pop is responsible for making sure fencing at the London Olympics is safe as well as enjoyable to watch.
While safety is paramount, the real challenge is to make sure spectators can see the action, no easy task given the tip of a fencing blade is believed to be the second-fastest moving object at the Olympics after the marksman’s bullet.
Massive floor lights wrapping around the fencing area will flash when the wireless electronic scoring equipment is set off by a touch, either on or off the valid target.
Slow-motion instant replay for judges, and new for Olympic spectators this year, makes decisions more transparent. That is a big improvement from the past, when national interests very often hid behind the subjective reasoning of the referee.
And in foil, the lightest of the three weapons that include epee and saber, the bib — or area below the chin — is now a valid target, increasing the pace of a bout.
In an era of ballistic-grade fabric for uniforms, stronger steel, more rigid masks that stand up to 12kg punch tests and the banning of the running attack in saber, safety has improved and injuries severe enough to knock a competitor out of competition remain low.
Despite the dramatic images of blistering clashes with swooping metal weapons and ear-piercing screams of aggression, the sport is significantly safer than American football, soccer or basketball, according to a five-year study by the United States Fencing Association published in 2008.
When compared with a database of collegiate sports injuries, the association’s study, led by chief medical officer Peter Harmer, found injury rates 50 times greater in soccer than in fencing.
Between 1995 and 2005, fatal injuries because of participation in US high school and collegiate football reached 143,63 deaths for basketball and 20 for soccer. In the past 100 years there have been no reported deaths in US fencing.
Worldwide since Smirnov, Harmer said there are just seven confirmed fatalities.
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
RSS