Just when it appeared as if these Olympics couldn’t get any more scandalous, between the poison in the pool and the security issues, the fencing starts this weekend.
A fixture on the program since the 1896 Summer Games, which kicked off the modern Olympiad, fencing is the sport where old-world tradition meets new-world technology. Referees actually say “en garde” before the swordplay, and points are scored electronically to keep pace with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it touches of steel. The rules of engagement are complicated, and it’s down to the referee to determine which strikes are legal. That’s a lot of room for interpretation. And, some would have us believe, corruption.
This summer’s Olympic event will be held in gilded splendor at the Palace of Versailles, but US fencing has been beset by allegations around officiating. Two months ago USA Fencing suspended two referees after they admitted they had communicated with each other during an Olympic qualifying tournament in California (they denied they had manipulated the results in any way); the men, Jacobo Morales and Brandon Romo, were suspended for nine months after claims emerged that they fixed the outcome of a match for Tatiana Nazlymov, a Princeton student who competes in the sabre – the one where combatants lunge at each other as if shot out of a canon to draw first blood. USA Fencing had pursued 10-year bans for the men, but ultimately settled on the lesser sentence after a disciplinary panel found that the evidence against the pair, though compelling, didn’t prove collusion or manipulation. A statement by US fencers said the sentence was not harsh enough and “undermines the ethics of the sport and every athlete who strives for success on the grounds of fair play.”
USA Fencing accused two other referees, Yevgeniy Dyaokokin of Kazakhstan and Vasil Milenchev of Bulgaria, of making calls that favored Nazlymov and another American named Mitchell Saron, a star on Harvard’s sabre team. In this case, the federation said its video evidence was much stronger. Among other things, USA Fencing asked the sport’s global governing body, the International Fencing Federation, that Dyaokokin and Milenchev no longer be assigned to matches involving US fencers. USA Fencing told the New York Times that it understood an investigation had taken place but were unsure of the results and Dyaokokin and Milenchev are still working as referees. Dyaokokin and Milenchev have not publicly commented on the allegations.
In December, USA Fencing CEO Phil Andrews wrote to Nazlymov and Saron directly to warn them the federation was “in possession of data that shows, more likely than not, preferential calls being made by two particular referees in international competition,” while pointing out the “statistically improbable volume” of success they enjoyed as a result. The New York Times reviewed multiple drafts of Andrews’s letter and reported that an early draft threatened to dock them Olympic qualifying points if “strong evidence” of bout fixing emerged.
It appears no such evidence emerged and the final draft took a safer tack. USA Fencing told the pair it had “no reason at this time to believe that you are personally responsible, or even aware of these actions being taken by others to favor your international performance.” What could have been a shot across the bow turned out to be little more than a courtesy call “to formally put you on notice that we are aware of this alleged manipulation.” With little else standing in their way, Nazlymov and Saron punched their tickets to Paris 2024. It seems that if America’s medal hopes come down to Nazlymov or Saron in a bout under Dyaokokin or Milenchev, who are both listed as referees for Paris, the internet rumor mill will crank up, even if there is no evidence of anything untoward.
Fencing, it would seem, cannot preside over an Olympics without controversy. In the last cycle, their big headache was Alen Hadzic – an epee athlete who was under investigation over allegations of sexual misconduct that stretched back 10 years. Six women fencers wrote to the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee in hopes of getting him banned from the Tokyo Games, only to be told the final decision rested with SafeSport – the body in charge of policing allegations of sexual abuse in US Olympic sport. The “compromise” was to send Hadzic to Tokyo anyway but house him apart from teammates in the Olympic Village, at a hotel 25 minutes away. And the result was three of his male teammates further ostracizing him by donning pink face masks to support survivors of sexual assault. SafeSport eventually permanently banned Hadzic from fencing. He never faced criminal charges over the allegations.
All the while USA Fencing says its hands are tied. Fencing lacks the resources of more mainstream US Olympic sports and, seemingly, the support from peer federations to address claims of integrity issues that, if the Reddit threads on this are to be believed, are even worse outside the US. In a close-knit sport favored by elites, where the rules are as flexible as an foil blade, it makes sense that some believe there are people in this hyper ambitious set who would bend the rules to get ahead at Versailles. Still, those aware of the history of the palace should well remember what happened when those elites got cocky.
USA Fencing’s dragnet into allegations of cheating was supported in large measure by evidence crowdsourced from spectators. After the findings were made public in April, “select members of the USA Fencing Team” demanded their federation do more to protect a sport they say is “vulnerable to unfair refereeing and match-fixing.”
The revolution is coming. Fencing is officially en garde.