International Fencing Federation
international fencing governing body
The International Fencing Federation (Fédération Internationale d'Escrime) commonly known by the acronym FIE, is the international governing body of Olympic fencing. Today, its head office is at the Maison du Sport International in Lausanne, Switzerland. The FIE is composed of 155 national federations, each of which is recognized by its country's Olympic Committee as the sole representative of Olympic-style fencing in that country.
History
The International Fencing Federation (Fédération Internationale d'Escrime) is the heir of the Société d'encouragement de l'escrime founded in France in 1882, which took part in the global movement of structuring sport. The first international fencing congress was held in Brussels, Belgium in 1897 at the instigation of the Fédération belge des cercles d'escrime, followed by another one in Paris in 1900. On this occasion the Société organised one of the first international fencing events; French, Italian, Spanish, and Belgian fencers attended the competition. Dissensions rapidly arose between épéeists and foilists, which held the majority at the Société. The third congress held in Brussels in 1905 voted the creation of an international fencing committee whose mission would be of fostering friendship amongst all fencers, establishing national rules, and supporting the organization of fencing competitions. The third congress also adopted the French rules as the basis for upcoming international competitions. New tensions appeared, this time between France and Italy, about the regulatory weapon grip.
The public source identifies “International Fencing Federation” as international fencing governing body. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around International, Fencing and Federation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q178695. VIAF identifies the subject as 139218377. The Library of Congress control number is n83074951. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1882, 1897, 1900 and 1905.
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This entry incorporates text from “International Fencing Federation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.