Vektor

Russia will never be satisfied because their ultimate goal is become a superpower again, but the war in Ukraine proved that Russia is way too powerless for those ambitions. They will eventually become a puppet state of China, so the current discussions should be between the West and China, not between the West and Russia. The fate of Ukraine and Russia will be decided based on what the US and China want. Russian propaganda says Ukraine is just a chess piece for the US and they fail to realize that Russia has also became a smaller piece in this game. And I think China will be very satisfied by a Russian defeat in this war if it will mean that they will have significant control over a weakened Russia and its resources. China can gain more with this conflict than the West/US, a fully victorious Ukraine is still less of a prize than Russia. And Russia will lose the most as they can become the lapdog of a nation that they have far less cultural connection with than with the West.

Being completely anti-war is what has led Europe to this very moment in history. Any sane person wants a world without war, but that's not possible. Not now, not in the future. Europe right now is in a direct conflict with Russia, the defeat of Ukraine would be the defeat of Europe as well. And the only acceptable way to end this conflict is with a Russian defeat. Putin can't get away with it again. The Western alliance has to show that our enemies can't cross a line without suffering humiliation, otherwise Taiwan comes next and then the next World War. And yes, that means many Ukrainians will die for this cause. I wish it wouldn't be the case, but that's what you get when a nuclear power attacks a non-nuclear power. NATO can't end it directly, which I am quiet sure they would be able to with air support in Ukraine because the Russian army wouldn't stand a chance, but that's not possible due to the nuclear threat. So it has to be won with the hard way for Ukraine. And as for Europe, instead of the continuous anti-war bullshit, we need an actual strong, united European army. We can't rely on the US forever, who knows when the next Trump (or just Trump again) comes along. This must be the conflict and the time that the EU and its nations realize that we need to be always prepared to be able to protect ourselves and the silly assumption that we are invincible has to stop. We are vulnerable without a strong European army, our peaceful ways are only possible to maintain with a strong defence.

2 more gold medals for us today. I am very pleased with how this tournament went for us, regardless of what happens on the last day. The future of Hungarian fencing looks promising.

Hungarians like the EU, it gave them open borders and it helped the economy. What they don't like is how it's mainly controlled by the Western members. They don't want Orbán to leave the EU, they want Orbán to control what direction the EU takes as much as he possibly can. The ultimate dream of Orbán is to turn the EU into a decentralized economical union of authoritarian states who play both sides, be a buffer between the US and China instead of closely allied to one side.

It seems FIE is quickly finding new hosts. The final Women's Foil World Cup event was moved from to . The final Men's Epee World Cup event was moved from to . This probably means that the Poznan World Cup will also find a home soon enough. So it seems and probably others like and will help FIE out with these European World Cup events if Western Europe doesn't want to host. Ultimately this will only make it harder to Western European fencers to qualify for the Games, less events at home. FIE probably expected this resistance and already prepared replacement hosts for the events.

We blame communists, not Russia, for what transpired here during the Cold War, and those communists are gone from Russia, therefore there's nothing to be angry at them. And on top of that Hungarian nationalism is fueled by revisionism and anti-globalistic sentiments, and they see Russia as one of the last European bastions of true nationalistic values that want to restore Europe as it was before it became a "colony of the US". Trianon is the biggest national tragedy this country suffered in 1000 years and that was mostly inflicted by the West, so I very much doubt that Hungary will ever view them as close of an ally as Poland. So yeah, the moment that war broke out, I had no doubt in my mind that Hungarian society won't be anywhere near as pro-Ukrainian as the rest of Europe. It's on par for course of how Hungary views the rest of the world.

I will be very surprised if we actually win this quota. Other than the fact that we are hosting this event, I get the impression that other countries are more invested in getting this quota than we are. We will lose it because Hungary doesn't give a shit about equestrian.

Will FIE withdraw fencing from the European Games in that case? I mean, it's one thing to cancel a World Cup event or even move the ECh to a different country, but this time the ECh is part of the European Games, so... yeah. This is really fucked. I guess get ready for a lot more fencing world cup events in Hungary next season, we are the one top European fencing nation who won't complain at all about the Russian participation.

And the Poznan World Cup is apparently cancelled anyway? Or at least that's what the Hungarian media is reporting today. Wtf is happening with this World Cup?

Pretty good results in women's sabre for us, two fencers in Top8, 3 in Top16. Battai's 11th place is a bit of a disappointment because she's already capable of winning even gold on the senior level, but she got defeated by the world champion in the R16. The future of men's sabre on the other hand doesn't look that good for us, it has been known for a few years now that we will likely experience a big drop in quality once Szilágyi and Szatmári retires.

On the other hand the Epee World Cup in France is cancelled:

I guess the World Cup event in Poznan is still happening. We will see which Russians fencers are willing to "betray their country" to compete.

This entire Greater Hungary debate won't end until UEFA and all the other federations make it clear that ONLY country flags allowed. No Greater Hungary, no Székely Land flag, but also no Rainbow flag. Ban everything that isn't the flag of the two countries that are playing at the match. You either go this route or this constant bickering will never fucking end because if people can't let go of their hatred even at a time when borders don't exist in the EU, they never will. And ban every damn fool for a lifetime who spreads hatred at international football matches. For example, I am sure those Romanian gentlemen on the picture above can easily be tracked down and be banned from every UEFA and FIFA sanctioned match for a lifetime. And apply the same for Hungarians as well who can't behave. At some point they should get the message.

So the Russians can win team quotas but they won't be able to participate in those team events. I mean, to me it seems quite clear that they won't be allowed to compete as a team in any sport at the Olympic Games. These are "recommendations", but it would be very strange if it wouldn't apply for the Games themselves.

Well, now that it seems Russians can't compete in team events at the Games, their inclusion in the fencing Olympic qualification seems quite stupid. I mean, this way they will have an impact on the qualification by eliminating eligible teams at the events, but they won't actually be eligible? Like, they will earn WR points in the team events, right @phelps? So they will take points from others, while at the same time won't be eligible? What a mess.

We haven't even heard about a boycott at fencing events from Poland and the Baltic countries where the Russian participation is already confirmed. I think only the Ukrainian boycott is likely, and if Russians get the bare minimum of participation, like only 50 or so athletes in only individual events, I think even Ukraine will be willing to take that compromise and still go to the Games. At worst we will only see forfeit matches in combat sports like from Iran against Israel.

I can't keep up with these name changes. I swear one day I will wake up and see that we want to be called "Magyarland" or something instead of "Hungary" and the entire world will be very confused.

I mean, if Europeans care, especially in such an Europe-centric sport, is a big deal. The rest of the world doesn't matter as much as Europe for fencing. Italy and France will decide this, the sport literally can't exist if they would join Germany, Poland and Sweden and start to cancel events where Russians compete.

The press conference starts at 16:00 CET.

If they only ban them in team sports, that would be quite strange in individual sports where there are classic team events. Artistic Gymnastics and Fencing has team events that are as important as individual events, if not more. The same can be said about Artistic Swimming and Rhythmic Gymnastics. Not to mention Canoe Sprint and Rowing. Or the relays in Swimming and Athletics.

Unsurprisingly, none are Hungarian... Only two fencers from Italy. 15 from France. None from South Korea. So most of these don't come from the top fencing nations. 45 from Poland, 31 from Germany, 46 from Ukraine. The list is padded with athletes from countries you would expect. They don't hold enough power in FIE, which means that FIE won't care.

Team event WR points ranking before the start of the Olympics qualification. Currently only and has 6/6 Olympic spots. And obviously a lot will change if certain "neutral" teams will appear as they would very likely take 6 team spots. Sum ME WE MF WF MS WS 2088 344 340 400 448 268 288 1934 412 336 273 324 223 366 1865 260 424 203 200 448 330 1580 153 253 380 344 238 212 1487 262 141 328 292 208 256 1464 276 190 159 167 376 296 1157 201 230 157 228 191 150 1137 148 169 147 218 255 200 1041 182 211 155 169 174 149 1009 119 239 202 201 74 174 1006 116 123 163 240 196 168 954 161 90 112 201 163 227 936 146 170 230 112 206 72 858 70 215 215 133 138 87 575 58 68 165 121 83 80 511 0 116 8 123 164 100 464 36 62 124 94 68 80 460 250 202 0 0 8 0 451 32 64 88 149 56 62 431 83 50 120 156 22 0 429 218 70 32 25 40 44 425 198 157 62 8 0 0 382 142 0 0 0 92 148 366 122 36 34 38 108 29 359 32 40 52 52 48 135 ... 250 8 16 0 0 210 16 245 24 0 0 0 0 221

World Cup + Grand Prix medal table after 58 events 15-17-17 10-6-21 9-2-5 6-5-7 5-5-6 3-2-10 2-3-1 2-1-4 2-0-1 2-0-0 1-1-2 1-0-0 0-2-4 0-2-3 0-2-2 0-2-1 0-1-1 0-1-1 0-1-0 0-1-0 0-1-0 0-1-0 0-1-0 0-1-0 0-0-2 0-0-2 0-0-1 0-0-1 0-0-1 Individual events medal table 10-9-14 7-1-3 4-1-6 3-6-17 2-3-1 2-1-5 2-1-4 2-0-0 2-0-0 1-1-2 0-2-3 0-2-2 0-1-3 0-1-2 0-1-1 0-1-0 0-1-0 0-1-0 0-1-0 0-1-0 0-0-2 0-0-1 0-0-1 0-0-1 0-0-1 Team events medal table 7-0-4 5-8-3 5-4-3 2-4-1 2-1-2 1-1-5 1-0-0 0-1-1 0-1-1 0-1-0 0-1-0 0-1-0 0-0-1 0-0-1 0-0-1

The push comes from Russian money. Nobody is bribing them to ban Russians, but they sure get a lot of money if they cancel the ban. Fencing is a small sport where Russians have a ton of influence as they are one of the three top European nations besides Italy and France. I am sure certain people in FIE got their bribes. It's very important for Russia to have their athletes at the Games, they know it very well that it would be a big win for them on the international stage as it would be a sign that the world doesn't care enough about the war or Ukraine to sever ties with Russia and its people for a longer period of time.

I wonder what will happen with the European Championships. They can't do anything about it, it's part of the European Games and it will be Poland. There's no way that Poland will allow Russians there and it would look awful if they take fencing out of the European Games just because FIE wants Russians to be part of this sport. And the most important of it all: what does Italy think? Because they are hosting the World Championships. Russians will have an incredibly hard time to qualify to Paris if they can't attend the WCh. And it would obviously be an enormous scandal if Milan cancels the WCh. And there are also two more WC events in Europe this season, in and . FIE can't possibly move the entire fencing calendar out of Europe.