Fencing Qualification to Summer Olympic Games Paris 2024

[intoronto 6,907]

1 hour ago, Pasolini said:

and i don't get how a country with 2 of the 5 best athletes in the world can't get a reasonable team. 

This is the question I have too.

Maybe @Makedonascan explain

[phelps 8,728]

2 hours ago, Pasolini said:

and i don't get how a country with 2 of the 5 best athletes in the world can't get a reasonable team. 

it might happen...

 

and it's not even the first time it actually happens

 

in Rio, Italy didn't qualify the women's epee team despite having Fiamingo (undisputed no.1 in the world at that time, world champion and world cup champion in 2014 and 2015) and Navarria (who in 2016 was the no.2 in the world behind Fiamingo and had to miss those Olympic Games because of that same rule)

 

p.s. to qualify the team, it's not enough being a "reasonable" team, in Europe you generally need to be among the 5 best teams in the world to qualify (look at Germany in the men's team sabre...they're no.6 in the world and despite that, they're out)

fencing is one of the sports with the hardest qualifying pathways, it's easier to win a medal when you're in than qualifying for the Games

[phelps 8,728]

1 hour ago, Pasolini said:

I think some AIN athletes could  benefit from that. I can see they giving out 4 tripartite and 4 AIN quotas or something like that.

no, AIN fencers won't get wild cards, but some of them will qualify through the Continental qualifiers

 

I mean, I wouldn't be surprised at all if they get 4 places out of 6 at that tournament (still, we have to see who's gonna compete for them)

[Makedonas 2,263]

11 hours ago, Pasolini said:

Sad for her, but I don't get the whole idea of "let's change the system because of one specific case".

 

The Olympics is also about have more nations represented. Having said that, I would like to see a bigger fencing draw, like 48? And then we could have a rule of "if you are in top10 you can have 2 individual athletes qualified", like in Badminton for instance or tennis doubles

Or what about letting her compete in the European qualification tournament? It could be like shooting where you can't get more than one quota per qualification event (at least I think that is the rule in shooting, I'm sure @phelps knows better than me).

[Makedonas 2,263]

11 hours ago, Jur said:

I'm sad for her but the post is giving sore loser. And she knew about the qualification process years in advanced, nothing is new.

I don't think she was ever claiming the process is new or that she didn't expect it, because she was clearly familiar with this format as the number one Greek always qualified via ranking whether it was Vougiouka in 2016 or Gkountoura in 2020 and 2024. She wasn't ranked as high in those other ones but for 2020 she would've been one of the favourites at the continental qualification event but wasn't eligible to compete as Greece already had one quota via ranking.

 

Gkountoura also gave an interview recently and said it is unlucky for Georgiadou.

 

But for example can someone tell me in what other sport does someone who wins medals at World Championships in both 2022 and 2023 not qualify for Paris 2024?

[Makedonas 2,263]

11 hours ago, Pasolini said:

and i don't get how a country with 2 of the 5 best athletes in the world can't get a reasonable team. 

 

10 hours ago, intoronto said:

This is the question I have too.

Maybe @Makedonascan explain

Our top two fencers are in the top 5 but our third girl is ranked 147 and then after that our next girl is 227. We are not a big fencing country, so it's actually a miracle that we have two girls somehow in the top 5. We have Kontochristopoulou in the women's foil ranked 86. No one else in any weapon or gender is top 100 (special shout out though to 18 yo Garyfallou who is ranked 102 in the women's foil ).

 

The sport has grown since 2004 slowly I guess. I mean, I don't personally know anyone who has ever competed in fencing even at an amateur/recreational level unlike other sports, so I can't speak much about it, but since 2004 we had Vougiouka, Gkountoura, and Georgiadou all very successful, so the federation must be doing something right because for decades we won no medals and rarely qualified any fencers to the Olympics.

 

As @phelps said, it is very hard to qualify as a European team.

 

Our team made a serious effort the last few years and are ranked 12th which is much better than they were before this Olympic cycle but still they are very far from the top 5/6, and let's not forget this is without Russia who won gold at in Tokyo in the team event!

 

Georgiadou seems like she will stay on until Los Angeles at least, she will be 37 yo. Gkountoura will be 31 so it's not a problem for her. The issue is finding a third fencer, though 15 yo Kourousi and 21 yo Mavrikaki have had some promising results (especially Kourousi for her age) so hopefully we can get a "decent" third sabre fencer and make a push to qualify for Los Angeles.

 

I was saying for the past few years we should try to bring Vougiouka out of retirement, she was top 5 or so for some years and retired after Rio at 30 yo which is not that old in fencing, but it obviously never happened for Tokyo or Paris so I can't see it happening for Los Angeles, the more that time passes the less likely a comeback will be...

[Makedonas 2,263]

Also so many of Georgiadou's rivals and also other notable fencers from other weapons commented on the posts, and many people are saying FIE should give her a wildcard, and that the system is unfair, and I approximately half of these people asking for wildcards are not even Greeks, so it's not just the case of "biased fans"

Edited March 29, 2024 by Makedonas

[Makedonas 2,263]

Also last thing I will say for now (sorry for spamming this topic) is that a fencing medal could really change the sport in Greece and bring more attention and sponsors, so that makes it frustrating that we have two serious medal contenders but only one can compete.

 

@phelps gave the great example of Italy in 2016 and that is pretty insane, and I don't want to "play the victim" but for us it means so much more in a way because fencing is so irrelevant in our country, and it feels like we are being denied the chance to make it relevant, while Italian fencing for example is so strong and historic that for them to experience this too is just such a different scenario.

 

In Tokyo we had high expectations for Gkountoura and she crashed out in the first round, hopefully she can do better here...

[Josh 13,526]

5 minutes ago, Makedonas said:

But for example can someone tell me in what other sport does someone who wins medals at World Championships in both 2022 and 2023 not qualify for Paris 2024?

In judo,  Jessica Klimkait has won bronze medals at the last two World Championships in women’s 57kg, and is #2 in the OQR (approximately 2700 points ahead of #3 Gjakova) but due to the one judoka per NOC rule there’s a possibility that she might not even qualify. Right now, she’s in a fierce internal selection battle with Christa Deguchi, who’s the reigning World Champion, and current #1 in the OQR (approximately 1500 points ahead of #2 Klimkait)
 

Judo Canada has yet to select their athlete though, so they could still pick Klimkait over Deguchi. 
 

Judo Canada Olympic Selection Criteria

Highest Finish at 2022 Worlds (1 pt) - Klimkait

Highest Finish at 2023 Worlds (2 pts) - Deguchi

Highest Finish at 2024 Worlds (2 pts) - TBD

Olympic Ranking (2 pts) - likely will be Deguchi

[Makedonas 2,263]

2 minutes ago, Josh said:

In judo,  Jessica Klimkait has won bronze medals at the last two World Championships in women’s 57kg, and is #2 in the OQR (approximately 2700 points ahead of #3 Gjakova) but due to the one judoka per NOC rule there’s a possibility that she might not even qualify. Right now, she’s in a fierce internal selection battle with Christa Deguchi, who’s the reigning World Champion, and current #1 in the OQR (approximately 1500 points ahead of #2 Klimkait)
 

Judo Canada has yet to select their athlete though, so they could still pick Klimkait over Deguchi. 
 

Judo Canada Olympic Selection Criteria

Highest Finish at 2022 Worlds (1 pt) - Klimkait

Highest Finish at 2023 Worlds (2 pts) - Deguchi

Highest Finish at 2024 Worlds (2 pts) - TBD

Olympic Ranking (2 pts) - likely will be Deguchi

Now that you mention it there are probably a few other examples in sports like wrestling, judo, etc. where only 1 athlete per NOC is allowed no matter what (unlike fencing where you can either have 1 or 3 but not 2...)