Fencing

Fencing is an Olympic sport? But isn’t that what I have in my garden to keep out the dogs?

Ha! The sport of fencing involves fighting with different types of swords. But, actually, the two meanings have the same origin—from the old French “defens,” meaning “defence.”

Oh, yes, of course. People have been fighting with swords for a long time, haven’t they?

Yes, indeed. They discovered some carvings in Egypt showing sword fighting that date from about 1190 B.C.

Really? And when did it become a sport? In the 14th or 15th century. Both the Italians and the Germans say they invented fencing.

For some reason I thought it was the French.

That’s not surprising, because French has been the language of fencing since 1573. A man called Henri de Saint-Didier wrote a document that included most of the terms still used today.

Such as?

Well, “touché,” for example. It’s French for“touched,” and it’s what a fencer says when he’s been hit by his opponent’s sword.

I’ve heard people say that in English, but they weren’t talking about fencing.

Yes, you can say it if someone makes a good point against you in an argument or discussion.

Speaking of arguments, didn’t people used to decide arguments by having sword fights?

Yes, and they were called “duels(决斗).” They were quite common. People sometimes even got killed.

And who’s won the most medals?

The French have won one more medal than the Italians in total, but the Italians have won more gold medals. So there’s no way of knowing who’s the best.

·There are ten events on the fencing programme: six for individuals and four for teams.

·Three types of sword are used: foil(钝头剑), epée(重剑) and sabre(长剑).

·The foil is a light sword. You score a hit when the tip of your sword touches your opponent between the waist and the shoulders.

·The epée is a heavier sword. You score a hit when the tip of your sword touches your opponent anywhere on the body.

·The sabre is a light sword. You score a hit when the tip or edge of your sword touches your opponent anywhere above the waist except their hands or the back of their head.

·In epée, both fencers can score at the same time. In foil and sabre, only one fencer can score a hit at a time.

·Each bout(比赛) lasts for three rounds of three minutes

each, or until one fencer scores 15 hits.

·An electric scoring system and a set of rules called“priority” are used to decide if a hit is valid.