The Tokyo Olympics will open a new page in the history of fencing. For the first time at one Games, all 12 sets of medals that can be played will be played out - in individual and team competitions in epee, foil and saber among men and women. Previously, there was a restriction at the main competitions of the four years - two team tournaments in different types of weapons dropped out of the program. For example, in Rio de Janeiro, saber fencers and foil fencers were unlucky. They had only one chance to climb the Olympic podium, while all the other fencers had two.

This order of things hit especially hard on the medal opportunities of the Russian team.

For those disciplines that were not included in the Olympic program, separate world championships were held in leap years, and since 2004, domestic fencers have won four gold medals on them.

They could have had Olympic status if it were not for the rotation of disciplines that has discriminated against athletes for years.

Five years ago, Russian fencers won the medal standings in their sport, winning four gold, one silver and two bronze medals.

At the last world championship in 2019, domestic athletes also took the lead in the team classification (3-3-1).

In Tokyo, they will again fight for the status of the leading fencing power and will compete in all 12 disciplines.

However, it will be rather difficult to assess the balance of power in fencing this time.

The sport has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2021, only one stage of the World Cup took place for each type of weapon, and even those took place back in March.

Even the continental championships, which were scheduled for June, had to be canceled.

So at the Tokyo Olympics, fencing can bring a lot of sensations.

Rapier

Inna Deriglazova is the undisputed leader of the women's foil in the world. Since 2015, she has won three individual world championships and won the Rio Olympics. Even the only start this year - the Grand Prix stage in Doha - remained with her. Her teammates Larisa Korobeinikova and Adelina Zagidullina do not have such a list of personal achievements, but they are simply irreplaceable for a team tournament. It was they who broke the resistance of the Italians at the last championship of the planet, which is always considered a feat in the world of fencing.

The Italy squad will include Martina Batini, Arianna Errigo and Alice Volpi. Suffice it to say about them that each of these girls at least fought in the final of the individual world championship. At the same time, Eliza Di Francisca, one of the best fencers in history, did not enter the team. In 2019, she surprised many when she decided to resume her career at the age of 36 and immediately won two medals at the main start of the season, but she preferred the birth of her second child to a trip to the Olympics. But even without her participation, the confrontation between Russia and Italy in the women's foil can be considered the culmination of fencing competitions.

In Rio de Janeiro, the gold in the men's team tournament was won rather unexpectedly by the Russians, but now they will hardly be able to repeat this feat. Young brothers Anton and Kirill Borodachev, together with Vladislav Mylnikov, ousted all veterans from the national team, including Aleksey Cheremisinov and Dmitry Zherebchenko, individual gold medalists of the world championships. Timur Safin, who in Rio did not limit himself to one medal and also won a personal bronze, was able to remain in the team only as a substitute.

The new roster has not yet managed to show itself in any way at the adult level, and for him participation in the Tokyo Olympics is more likely a preparation for the 2024 Games in Paris.

Now the leaders of the men's foil are representatives of France, the USA and Italy.

Among the latter, it is worth highlighting Andrea Cassara - he will perform at his fifth Olympic competition.

In his collection there is even a gold medal for the Athens 2004 Games.

Saber

The Russian women's saber team can also be called a fencing dream-team.

Since the last victorious world championship, she has retained almost all of her golden composition in the person of Sofia Velikaya, Sofia Pozdnyakova and Olga Nikitina.

Only two-time Olympic champion Yana Yegoryan, who had a new addition to her family in the spring, is absent from the team.

The Great, which at its fourth Olympics will be the standard-bearer of the Russian national team, has a difficult relationship with these competitions. She twice reached the finals of the individual tournament, but both times she was defeated. With her career, she has long deserved to be a champion not only in team competitions. But the Ukrainian Olga Harlan dreams of filling the same gap. She won the world championships in the individual competition four times, a record for the saber, and at the Olympic Games twice she was one line below the Great.

In the men's national team of Russia, there are also no names unfamiliar to the fans.

It is based on experienced Veniamin Reshetnikov and Kamil Ibragimov, who have a rich collection of awards at the world championships.

The third number in the team is Konstantin Lokhanov, who has already helped this season to win the World Cup in Budapest, home of the winner of the last two Olympics, Aron Siladya.

The main favorites of the men's saber are not unreasonably South Koreans.

They have not lost at the World Championships in the team competition since 2017, and their leader Oh Sang Wook confirmed the status of the strongest saber fencer, also winning the competition in Budapest.

True, immediately after that, he contracted the coronavirus and spent a month in the hospital.

If he has not fully recovered, then other teams will have a chance to compete not only for silver and bronze.

Sword

The epee may become the most problematic weapon for the Russian national team. The women's team, which won the silver in the 2019 World Championship, has been almost completely renewed. Of the experienced athletes, only Violetta Kolobova remained, who retained her place since the bronze Olympics in Rio. Aizanat Murtazaeva and Yulia Lichagina, who have not yet appeared on the world stage, will perform with her. The team of epee fencers suffered a serious loss due to the coronavirus - because of its consequences, the 2017 world champion in the individual tournament, Tatyana Gudkova, could not recover for the competition.

In women's competitions Natalie Möllhausen will try to create a sensation. In the past, she successfully represented Italy, but when she was no longer accepted into the team, she moved to Brazil and became the world champion in 2019. If successful, she will bring her new country the first ever Olympic medal in fencing. Yulia Belyaeva, representing Estonia, will try to do the same. In her collection there are four world championship awards, including two gold, but none from the Olympics.

The Russian men's national team last won an Olympic medal in the team tournament in 1996 (silver), but in the individual standings no one succeeded after Pavel Kolobkov (gold in 2000 and bronze in 2004). At the World Championships, Russian epee fencers became third in 2017 and 2018. Sergei Bida will go to Tokyo in the status of the current vice-world champion, and Pavel Sukhov and Sergei Khodos, who performed in Rio, will accompany him.

They will have to face many powerful teams. High goals are set by the French national team, which has not lost the Olympic team tournament since 2004 and is the reigning world champion. But this season, she was not allowed on the podium of the World Cup stage, not the most stellar Chinese team. Do not underestimate the team of Ukraine and its leader Igor Reizlin, who at the age of 37 reached the peak of his form. Finally, the Italians and the Swiss can cause problems for the Russians.