From Great to victory: what to expect from the Russian national team at the Fencing World Cup

From July 22 to July 30, the World Fencing Championships will be held in Tbilisi, where 12 sets of awards will be awarded. Russian athletes will compete at the tournament in a neutral status and with a fairly large team. It includes Olympic champions Yana Yegoryan and Sofia Velikaya, who had previously been barred from international competitions due to their affiliation with CSKA. Athletes from a number of countries are not happy about this event. Read more about the upcoming championship in the Izvestia article.

The scandalous Milan

The last time our team fully participated in the World Cup was in Budapest in 2019. Last year, only seven athletes received neutral status from the International Federation (FIE) at the World Cup in Italy. There was not a single national team leader among them, whose applications were rejected. As a result, Russia was represented by second- and third-tier fencers, who could hardly have been expected to achieve great success.

None of our people could get close to the medals in Milan, and the tournament was remembered for a loud scandal. In one of the fights, Ukrainian sabre player Olga Harlan defeated Russian Anna Smirnova, but then refused to shake her opponent's hand. Instead, Harlan held out her weapon, said something in the direction of Smirnova, and then left the path. According to the FIE rule, a match is considered over only after a handshake. The Russian woman appealed to the judges about the violation of the rules and remained in position. The organizers even brought her a chair, but after waiting 50 minutes, she was still asked to leave the track.

Harlan was not allowed to continue playing at the tournament, disqualifying the sabre player. This, in fact, meant for her skipping the Olympics in Paris. It was only then that the then IOC President Thomas Bach intervened, who promised her a personal quota. The Ukrainian went to Paris, where she won gold in the team competition and bronze in the individual competition. There was no compensation for Anna Smirnova from the FIE and the IOC. On the contrary, changes have been made to the regulations, according to which handshakes are no longer mandatory.

By the World Cup in Georgia, there had been a number of positive changes in the attitude of Russian athletes. Firstly, in early May, the International Federation allowed our fencers to participate not only in individual competitions, but also in team competitions. This option was previously closed to us. Those who have received a neutral status from the FIE can still compete in the tournament.

— This is a new step towards our athletes. It shows that the dialogue is underway. It is important that he exists and there is an understanding that our athletes should participate in competitions. It is clear that not all at once, as we would like, but gradually it came to this. In June, it will be three and a half years since we did not participate in team competitions. And the young athletes never participated at all. Therefore, the sooner we return, the sooner the team will begin to recover. We consider this as a positive step, but not final, because all the leading athletes and coaches are still suspended," Ilgar Mammadov, head of the Russian Fencing Federation (FFR), explains to Izvestia.

The first competition where we were able to compete in team tournaments was the European Championship in Genoa, Italy. The Russians won three medals there, including gold in the individual sword of Aizanat Murtazayeva and two bronze medals in the men's foil and sabre teams.

In those days, two-time Olympic champion Yana Yegoryan was glad that we had the opportunity to compete in major tournaments, but she added with regret that she did not have such chances. Sophia the Great did not count on much either. The problem was that they and a number of our athletes have military ranks and represent CSKA, which contradicts the recommendations of the IOC to obtain a neutral status.

However, at the beginning of July this year, good news came for our champions. FIE heard the arguments of the Russian side, which said that military ranks are a common world practice for fencing, and gave a neutral status to Egoryan, Velikaya and others.

— Another step towards our athletes returning to the international arena. In stages, in small batches. It's hard to believe that Sofia the Great, a two-time Olympic champion and eight-time world champion, has not participated in the World Championships for six years. They thought they wouldn't come back — they're getting older. It's a solid age for a sporting life, but it's a great age for an ordinary one. Fortunately, there have been changes now," the head of the FFR emphasized in a conversation with Izvestia.

Letter 447

Ukraine has reacted sharply to the FIE's recent decisions on the admission of Russians. Olga Harlan, the leader of the national team, was especially indignant.

"Both of these decisions directly contradict the current recommendations of the IOC, given that relations with our international organization are already not very favorable. Further ignoring of their recommendations may eventually lead to our suspension from the Olympic Games, which will have disastrous consequences for our sport," the saber fighter wrote.

The result of the discontent was an open letter from 447 athletes from 56 countries who opposed the participation of Russians in the World Cup. However, 239 signatories wished to remain anonymous, which raised doubts about the reliability of their support. Most of the public statements were made by not the most famous fencers, many of whom have already completed their careers. Among them are representatives of Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, the USA, and Finland.

"We, the undersigned athletes, disagree with the recent FIE decisions on the admission criteria for Russian and Belarusian athletes. We were not consulted, and we did not participate in making these decisions, so we consider it our duty to publicly state our position. We emphasize that our position is not directed against individual athletes, but is based on our commitment to the principles of fairness, transparency and consistency in governance," the document says.

The letter was published by Olga Harlan, who herself will not go to the World Cup in Tbilisi. The International Fencing Federation did not publicly respond to the open letter.

Without forecasts

We have an interesting squad for the tournament in Tbilisi. In addition to Yegoryan and Velikaya, Olympic champions Marta Martyanova and Olga Nikitina, two-time world champion Kamil Ibragimov, winner of the recent European Championship Aizanat Murtazayeva, Tokyo Olympic medalists Anton and Kirill Borodachev, Vladislav Mylnikov joined the team.

With such a team, you can definitely count on medals, but it's almost impossible to predict their number. Firstly, it is difficult to assess the level of our leaders, who have not competed in international competitions for three years. Of course, the Great One tried to keep fit and took part in national tournaments, but the age factor cannot be ruled out. The two-time Olympic champion turned 40 in June. Secondly, not all leaders have received a happy letter about receiving neutral status yet. This means that we cannot say that we will have the strongest team at the World Cup.

The head of the FFR, Ilgar Mammadov, also refuses to make medal predictions.

— I'm waiting for everything to end there without any excesses and without any problems. For the first time, you don't care about the performance anymore, but about the safety of our athletes and coaches. That's what we've come to! I never thought that when we left for a neighboring country, we would negotiate with our friends to provide us with additional security," Mammadov told Izvestia.

At the last full-fledged World Championship for us, the Russian national team won the first team place, taking three gold, three silver and one bronze medal. The women's sabre and rapier teams, as well as Irina Deriglazova, scored victories at that time.