Veterans lead Korea's Olympic fencing team for sabre, epee crowns

Olympic Sports

Published: 24 Jul. 2024, 16:52 Updated: 24 Jul. 2024, 17:23

Veterans lead Korea's Olympic fencing team for sabre, epee crowns

Choi In-jeong, left, and Song Se-ra compete in the women's epee final at the Hangzhou Asian Games in Hangzhou, China on Sept. 28, 2023. [NEWS1]

A decorated squad of Korean fencers are headed to the Paris Olympics where they will face off against powerful European counterparts as France, one of the most successful nations in the sport, plays host.

Fourteen fencers, six men and eight women, will represent Korea across eight events — all three individual men’s events, men’s team sabre and both the individual and team competitions in women’s epee and sabre.

Two-time gold-medalist Gu Bon-gil is returning for his fourth straight Olympics in men’s sabre, where the Korean men’s team are the defending champions.

Korea returned to the top of the men’s team sabre podium in Tokyo after winning gold at the 2012 London Olympics. Men’s team sabre was not contested at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Gu Bon-gil, right, competes in the men's sabre final at the Huangzhou Asian Games in Huangzhou, China on Sept. 28, 2023. [YONHAP]

Fellow men’s team sabre Tokyo gold-medalist Oh Sang-uk is also headed to Paris, where he and Gu will compete alongside newcomers Park Sang-won and Do Gyeong-dong. In team events, three fencers compete while one remains an alternate who can act as a substitute.

Gu, Oh and Park will also compete in the men’s individual sabre event while first-time Olympians Kim Jae-won and Ha Tae-gyu will represent Korea in the individual men’s epee and foil events, respectively. Korea did not qualify a men’s epee team, who won bronze in Tokyo.

Fans will also be closely watching the Korean women’s epee team as the entire squad who won silver in Tokyo will fight for gold in Paris.

Korea has established itself as a powerful force as women’s epee team. Ranked No. 2 as of press time, the team went on to win the 2022 world championships in Cairo, Egypt and place third at the 2023 world championships in Milan, Italy.

The Korean women's epee team of, from left, Choi In-jeong, Lee Hye-in, Song Se-ra and Kang Young-mi pose for a photo at the Jincheon National Training Center in Jincheon, North Chungcheong on May 27. [JOONGANG ILBO]

On the women’s epee team is Song Se-ra, the highest individually-ranked Korean woman. She was the individual women’s epee champion in Cairo, the first Korean woman to win the title in two decades.

Also returning in women’s epee is Kang Young-mi, who at 39 years old is the oldest member of the Korean fencing squad, Choi In-jeong and Lee Hye-in. Lee, Kang and Song will compete in the women’s individual epee event.

Korea also qualified a women’s sabre team, who won bronze in Tokyo. But Yoon Ji-su is the only returning member, leading a fresh-faced squad.

Choi Se-bin, Jeon Ha-young and Jeon Eun-hye are set to represent Korea in the discipline alongside Yoon.

Individual and team events for three weapons will take place in Paris.

Each sword is different. Foil features a long and flexible sword with a small handguard while epee has a similar blade but is stiffer with a larger handguard. Sabre swords have a triangular shaped blade, the smallest, with the biggest handguard.

Foil, the most restrictive weapon, limits athletes to scoring only when their sword hits their opponent’s upper torso, excluding their arms.

The Grand Palais in Paris will host fencing and Taekwondo at the 2024 Paris Olympics. [AP/YONHAP]

Epee, on the other hand, is less stringent as fencers are allowed to score anywhere on their opponent.

Sabre, different from epee and foil, requires the fencer to slash the opponent in the upper torso including the arms.

Similar to foil, if the sword lands anywhere on the head or legs, the attack is void.

For individual events, the first fencer that reaches 15 points or has the most points after three three-minute rounds wins.

For team events, the first group of fencers to reach 45 points wins.

There are four fencers per team, though only three compete in each round, and each athlete can win up to five points before they must be substituted off by a teammate.

Italy and France have dominated fencing at the Olympics, with Russia and the United States also top producers of fencing champions. Korea has 16 medals in fencing at the Olympics, including five gold.

Fencing will begin with the individual men's sabre and women's epee competitions on July 27 and end with the men's team foil finals on Aug. 4 at the Grand Palais in Paris. Women's team epee lands on July 30 and men's team sabre, where Korea is after a third-straight gold, takes place on July 31.

BY MARY YANG, KEVIN CHUNG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]