Parts of this article (those related to explanation of the 2023 championships) need to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (July 2023)

The European Fencing Championships is an annual top-level European fencing competition organized by the European Fencing Confederation.

History

The first competition bearing the name of "European Fencing Championships" was held in Paris in 1921. The International Fencing Federation (FIE) comprised only European federations at the time, with the exception of the United States. In 1936, on the 25th anniversary of the FIE and at the request of the Italian federation, the FIE congress decided to open the European Championships to all countries and granted retroactive recognition of the European Championships as World Championships. ^[1]

After 1937 the FIE focused on the organisation of the World Fencing Championships. Demand for European Championships appeared at the 1979 congress, but it was rejected on the ground that they would either belittle the World Championships or offer a poor fencing level. The question was put forth again the following year by the Yugoslav federation, with the support of the Italian federation, which offered to organize the first competition. The congress agreed to authorize such championships, on the condition that they would be held only when the World Championships were organized in a non-European country. The first edition took place in Foggia, Italy on 11 and 12 November 1981. They proved to cause no interference with the 1981 World Championships and the restriction was lifted. ^[2]

Formula

Contrary to the World Championships and the World Cup, no exemption is granted to Top 16 fencers: all fence a round of pools, which eliminates 20% to 30% of participants. The remaining fencers compete in a direct elimination table.

Editions

Editions of European Fencing Championships

Number Edition City Country Events 1 1981 Foggia   Italy 4 2 1982 Mödling   Austria 4 3 1983 Lisbon   Portugal 4 4 1991 Vienna   Austria 10 5 1992 Lisbon   Portugal 5 6 1993 Linz   Austria 5 7 1994 Kraków   Poland 5 8 1995 Keszthely   Hungary 5 9 1996 Limoges   France 5 10 1997 Gdańsk   Poland 5 11 1998 Plovdiv   Bulgaria 10 12 1999 Bolzano   Italy 11 13 2000 Funchal   Portugal 12 14 2001 Koblenz   Germany 12 15 2002 Moscow   Russia 12 16 2003 Bourges   France 12 17 2004 Copenhagen   Denmark 12 18 2005 Zalaegerszeg   Hungary 12 19 2006 İzmir   Turkey 12

Number Edition City Country Events 20 2007 Ghent   Belgium 12 21 2008 Kyiv   Ukraine 12 22 2009 Plovdiv   Bulgaria 12 23 2010 Leipzig   Germany 12 24 2011 Sheffield   Great Britain 12 25 2012 Legnano   Italy 12 26 2013 Zagreb   Croatia 12 27 2014 Strasbourg   France 12 28 2015 Montreux   Switzerland 12 29 2016 Toruń   Poland 12 30 2017 Tbilisi   Georgia 12 31 2018 Novi Sad   Serbia 12 32 2019 Düsseldorf   Germany 12 – 20201 Minsk   Belarus 12 – 20211 Plovdiv   Bulgaria 12 33 2022 Antalya   Turkey 12 34 2023 Plovdiv   Bulgaria 6 Kraków   Poland 6

¹ 2020 and 2021 European Fencing Championships were cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic

Medal table

Last updated after the 2023 European Fencing Championships.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Italy	77	60	90	227
2	Russia	76	67	66	209
3	France	43	47	69	159
4	Hungary	34	36	51	121
5	Germany	33	29	61	123
6	Poland	17	23	45	85
7	Romania	16	16	26	58
8	Ukraine	14	17	32	63
9	Switzerland	7	6	11	24
10	Estonia	3	9	10	22
11	Austria	3	5	10	18
12	Georgia	3	0	3	6
13	Belarus	2	2	5	9
14	Spain	2	2	4	8
15	West Germany	2	2	1	5
16	Azerbaijan	2	0	3	5
17	Great Britain	1	3	8	12
18	Portugal	1	1	2	4
19	Israel	1	1	1	3
20	Greece	0	3	3	6
21	Bulgaria	0	2	1	3
	Netherlands	0	2	1	3
23	Belgium	0	2	0	2
24	Sweden	0	1	5	6
25	Denmark	0	1	0	1
26	Czech Republic	0	0	3	3
27	Czechoslovakia	0	0	2	2
	Turkey	0	0	2	2
Totals (28 entries)		337	337	515	1189

Multiple gold medalists

Boldface denotes active fencers and highest medal count among all fencers (including these who not included in these tables) per type.

Men

All events

Rank	Fencer	Country	Weapon	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Aleksey Yakimenko	Russia	Sabre	2003	2017	13	5	5	23
2	Stanislav Pozdnyakov	Russia	Sabre	1994	2008	13	–	4	17
3	Andrea Cassarà	Italy	Foil	2002	2019	10	4	1	15
4	Andrea Baldini	Italy	Foil	2004	2016	8	2	5	15
5	Gábor Boczkó	Hungary	Épée	1997	2015	7	5	3	15
6	Géza Imre	Hungary	Épée	1998	2013	6	4	2	12
7	Aleksey Frosin	Russia	Sabre	1997	2008	6	1	2	9
8	Yannick Borel	France	Épée	2011	2022	6	1	1	8
9	Aldo Montano	Italy	Sabre	2002	2019	5	5	1	11
10	Erwann Le Péchoux	France	Foil	2003	2019	5	3	2	10

Individual events

Rank	Fencer	Country	Weapon	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Aleksey Yakimenko	Russia	Sabre	2003	2016	5	4	3	12
2	Stanislav Pozdnyakov	Russia	Sabre	1994	2007	5	–	2	7
3	Andrea Cassarà	Italy	Foil	2002	2015	4	1	–	5
4	Yannick Borel	France	Épée	2016	2022	4	–	–	4
5	Gábor Boczkó	Hungary	Épée	1997	2015	3	1	2	6
6	Andrea Baldini	Italy	Foil	2005	2013	3	–	3	6
7	Pavel Kolobkov	Russia	Épée	1996	2006	2	3	4	9
8	Daniele Garozzo	Italy	Foil	2015	2022	2	3	–	5
9	Aleksey Cheremisinov	Russia	Foil	2011	2019	2	2	2	6
10	Max Hartung	Germany	Sabre	2011	2019	2	1	2	5

Women

All events

Rank	Fencer	Country	Weapon	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Sofya Velikaya	Russia	Sabre	2003	2019	14	6	3	23
2	Valentina Vezzali	Italy	Foil	1993	2015	13	4	4	21
3	Elisa Di Francisca	Italy	Foil	2004	2019	13	2	3	18
4	Arianna Errigo	Italy	Foil	2009	2022	12	3	4	19
5	Olha Kharlan	Ukraine	Sabre	2005	2022	8	7	6	21
6	Ana Maria Popescu (Brânză)	Romania	Épée	2006	2016	7	4	2	13
7	Simona Gherman (Alexandru)	Romania	Épée	2008	2016	7	1	2	10
8	Yekaterina Dyachenko	Russia	Sabre	2006	2016	6	4	1	11
9	Yelena Nechayeva	Russia	Sabre	2000	2007	6	3	2	11
10	Yana Egorian	Russia	Sabre	2013	2019	6	1	–	7

Individual events

Rank	Fencer	Country	Weapon	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Olha Kharlan	Ukraine	Sabre	2006	2019	6	1	1	8
2	Valentina Vezzali	Italy	Foil	1993	2014	5	3	2	10
3	Sofya Velikaya	Russia	Sabre	2005	2019	5	3	1	9
4	Elisa Di Francisca	Italy	Foil	2006	2019	5	1	1	7
5	Laura Badea-Cârlescu	Romania	Foil	1993	2004	3	2	2	7
6	Sylwia Gruchała	Poland	Foil	2000	2005	3	–	–	3
7	Arianna Errigo	Italy	Foil	2009	2022	2	2	3	7
8	Inna Deriglazova	Russia	Foil	2010	2019	2	2	1	5
9	Sabine Bau	Germany	Foil	1992	2001	2	1	1	4
	Yekaterina Fedorkina	Russia	Sabre	2004	2008	2	1	1	4

See also

• Fencing at the Summer Olympics
• World Fencing Championships
• other zone championships: African Fencing Championships, Asian Fencing Championships, Pan American Fencing Championships

References

• Ottogalli, Cécile; Six, Gérard; Terret, Thierry (2013). L'Histoire de l'escrime. 1913–2013, un siècle de Fédération internationale d'escrime. Biarritz: Atlantica. ISBN  978-2-7588-0485-7.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to European Fencing Championships.

• European Fencing Confederation (EFC), official site