Some of the world's finest swordsmen and women have come to Rio to test their skills and get a first look at Carioca Arena 3, the venue in which they will battle for Olympic glory in less than four months’ time. Two separate competitions are taking place from Saturday (23 April) to Wednesday (27 April): the Rio Fencing Grand Prix and the team world championships Finals.

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In the Grand Prix, fencers will face off in the individual epee event. Preliminary rounds have already taken place at a military training school in Rio. On Saturday, the top 64 fencers in the women’s and men’s events will move to Carioca Arena 3 in Barra Olympic Park, where they will fence for medals over the course of the weekend. Results in the Grand Prix will help determine the draw for the Olympic Games.

Rio is also the host of the team World Championships for the other two disciplines of fencing: sabre and foil. On Monday (25 April), the military school will host the preliminary rounds in both events. Teams will fight off until only eight are left in each weapon. 

Those top eight teams will then get the chance to use the Olympic facilities in Carioca Arena 3 where they will fight for the world title. The women’s foil teams will be in action on Tuesday followed by the men’s sabre teams on Wednesday.

All the events will boast star-studded line-ups, with the top-three male and female epee fencers, plus the top-three women's foil teams and men's sabre teams in town.

X marks the spot: the layout of the fencing pistes will enhance the spectator experience (Photo: Rio 2016)

The two competitions will give the Olympic facilities a thorough work-out. At Carioca Arena 3, fencers will get their first glimpse of a new X-shaped platform for the 'pistes', or fields of play, which has never been used for Olympic fencing before. The innovative design will allow up to four contests to take place at the same time. Wherever they are seated, spectators will be able to follow two matches simultaneously.

“Our focus is on testing the main competition areas and supporting services such as judging and the volunteers”  

Arno Perillier, fencing manager at Rio 2016 

Organisers will also be testing the systems for displaying results and in particular the wireless scoring technology, which registers when a fencer makes a valid hit on an opponent.

In the build-up the event, two leading French fencers, current world no.1 Gauthier Graumier and Athens 2004 gold medallist Hugues Obry, grabbed the chance to train on the beach in glorious Rio sunshine.

En Garde!

It wasn't just the elite of the sport who have been practicing their swordplay in Rio. On the world-famous Copacabana beach on Wednesday and Thursday (20- 21 April), the International Fencing Federation (FIE) and the Brazilian Fencing Confederation gave locals from all walks of life a chance to try to their hand at the historic art.

The two-day ‘Rio Loves Fencing!’ demonstration event was part of a promotional drive ahead of the Olympic Games, with fencing officials keen to leave a tangible legacy behind.

Young Brazilians relished the chance to try their hand at the noble art (Photo: FIE)

Kids as young as four were able to play with imitation swords while teams of older children faced off. Top Brazilian fencers including Ana Beatriz Bulcão, the country’s No. 3 foilist, gave demonstrations kitted out in full fencing whites.

“We were the talk of Copacabana. This was really our goal. To get people involved in fencing, talking about fencing, excited about fencing”

Mirani Fernandes, fencing manager at Rio 2016

A class of six-year-old children went out onto the beach to take a fencing lesson from Karim Bashir, the FIE and Olympic fencing commentator who will be narrating for this week’s test event and at the Olympic Games in August.

“We were on Copacabana beach in Rio, a world of football and volleyball, and we just started fencing. The reaction from the sunbathers was great and the kids had the time of their lives”

Karim Bashir, fencing commentator

The second day of the ‘Rio Loves Fencing!’ event coincided with a public holiday in Brazil and large numbers of locals were able to join in. The two-day demonstration also brought the curtain down on a special FIE initiative to give thousands of schoolchildren in Rio the chance to discover fencing. The two-month Fencing School programme visited nearly 40 schools and communities across the city.