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.
Kylian Mbappe struck from the penalty spot as Real Madrid beat a dogged CA Osasuna 1-0 on Tuesday to make a winning start in Spanish La Liga under new coach Xabi Alonso. The France striker, last season’s European Golden Shoe winner, scored early in the second half, after he was fouled in the area by Osasuna defender Juan Cruz. It was enough to seal the points in Alonso’s first game in charge at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Madrid now unbeaten in their opening fixture of a league campaign since 2008. “You can see that Kylian wants to do even more
TO THE TOP: After securing the international title on Saturday, Team Taiwan were to face Las Vegas to potentially win their 18th Little League World Series championship A team from Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School won the Little League Baseball World Series’ international title on Saturday by defeating Aruba 1-0 in the annual baseball tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Taiwan team, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, were after press time last night to face a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, which beat a team from Fairfield, Connecticut, in the US championship 8-2. Taiwan are seeking to win their first Little League Baseball World Series title since 1996. “Really haven’t taken a moment to data dump right now on Taiwan,” Nevada manager T.J. Fescher said. “They’re a
‘CATASTROPHE’: Despite losing several key forwards in the summer transfer window, Bayern were up 3-0 in the first half before Harry Kane scored a hat-trick in the second Harry Kane hit a hat-trick, Michael Olise a double and newcomer Luis Diaz also scored as Bayern Munich made a “statement” against RB Leipzig 6-0 at home in the Bundesliga season opener on Friday. Bayern’s big-money arrivals, all brought in from the Premier League across the past three seasons, were dominant as the Bavarians begun their title defense in style. Olise scored twice in the first half, either side of a Diaz strike. Not to be outdone, Kane scored three goals in the second half — with two assists coming from Diaz, to bring Bayern’s total to 6-0. Kane told the Bundesliga
Kevin de Bruyne is to lead SSC Napoli’s Serie A title defense today when he makes his full debut at promoted US Sassuolo, but the champions head into the new season rocked by a long-term injury to star striker Romelu Lukaku. De Bruyne was, alongside aging icon Luka Modric, the big new name to arrive in Italy this summer and fans were hoping his linkup with Belgium teammate Lukaku would push Napoli to success both at home and in their return to the UEFA Champions League. The 34-year-old has suffered from hamstring injuries which caused him to miss significant chunks of the