A
History of Fencing
The sport of fencing can be traced back through the centuries
as far as Ancient Egyptian times when hieroglyphic artwork records a sport
in which two combatants fight using sticks and padding much like modern
day fencers. With the evolution of battlefield technology, such as the introduction
of armour the use of swords became increasingly obsolete, despite once having
been used by civilisations as diverse as the Greeks, Romans, Babylonians
and Persians. One of Descartes first works (now sadly lost) was a treatise
on fencing based on his own geometric coordinate system. Modern day fencing
has been constantly refined and perfected with every generation of fencers
striving to improve on their forebears.
Articles
A random selection....
Australian
Academy of Fencing (a good section on history of fencing)
From Camillo Agrippa's "Trattato
di Scienza d'Arme" (1568) (Please note, modern fencers may appear
overdressed in comparison to these pictures!)
Great Fencing Champions (from Amarillo College Fencing Assocation
(USA)
Helene Mayer
(one of the to 100 female athletes of the 20th century - an article on
the website of her American club, USC) Note the stockings instead of socks
in the picture above
Jerzy
Pawlowski - 5 times Olympian sabreur, Cold War spy!
WWW.OLYMPIC.ORG
- Fencing Section - lead article on Nedo Nadi, winner of 5 gold medals
in the 1920 Olympic games
Olympic
Winners
Video
Leni Riefenstahl website, including Olympia - An excerpt from her documentary on the Berlin Olympics, 1936