With its birthday last November, the Fédération Internationale d’Escrime (FIE) is currently celebrating its centennial, becoming the 12th International Olympic Committee (IOC)-recognized sports federation to reach the 100-year mark.

The FIE was founded on November 29, 1913 by nine nations: Belgium, Bohemia (now the Czech Republic), France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands and Norway. Portugal also sent a representative to that initial meeting, but did not join the FIE until 1922.

Within the next year, the United States, Mexico, Switzerland and Monaco joined the young federation. Monaco wouldn’t have an IOC-recognized National Olympic Committee (NOC) until 39 years later, in 1953. This means that the tiny nation on the southeast tip France along the Mediterranean has the distinction of being the country with the most years between FIE admittance and IOC recognition.

On the flipside, Bermuda holds the record of being the country with the most years between IOC recognition and FIE admittance with 74 years. Bermuda was recognized by the IOC in 1936, but did not join the FIE until 2010. Other countries with similar differences are Sri Lanka (71 years), Afghanistan (69) and India (66).

Because the FIE archives were destroyed in World War II, four countries’ admission dates are unknown, although they did join the FIE before 1939: Cuba, Denmark, Greece and Sweden. If anyone knows of these countries’ admission dates, please email Jared at jtbeilby@gmail.com.

The FIE currently has 149 members, 148 of which also have an IOC-recognized NOC (Macau, China is the only FIE member without IOC status). The IOC currently has 204 member NOCs, so 56 of those countries are not FIE members.

Perhaps the most surprising countries without an international fencing team are the two lone Western European holdouts Liechtenstein and Andorra. Haiti, which joined the IOC in 1924, is the oldest IOC-recognized nation without an FIE membership, although the country has competed in fencing at both the 1900 and 1984 Olympics (it is unknown whether or not Haiti has been a member of the FIE).

While the FIE comprises of only 73% of IOC countries, its membership list has more than doubled in the past quarter-century with 76 new members since 1989.

Of these 76 countries, the majority hails from Africa and Asia as both zones have picked up 24 new members each since 1989. Europe has had 18, all but three coming from the split up of the Eastern Bloc in the early 1990s, while Pan America has had 10.

All but nine of the 76 have had fencers compete internationally. Besides the former Eastern Bloc nations, none of the additions have won medals on the World Championship or Olympic stages. Congo Republic, Costa Rica, Iran, Qatar and Senegal have all sent fencers to the Olympics since 1989. Alexandre Bouzaid of Senegal and formerly of France is the only fencer from these nations to make the Top 16 with his 15th place effort in the men’s individual epee event at the 2012 London Olympics.

This data does not include defunct nations since there may be several unknown former FIE members and the dates member nations left the FIE are often unavailable. Among known countries, the list of defunct nations includes East & West Germany, Netherlands Antilles, Saar, Serbia & Montenegro, the Soviet Union, the United Arab Republic and Yugoslavia.

This post has been written with available information. If there are should be any changes, contact Jared at jtbeilby@gmail.com.

sources:

FIE Statutes, 2013

International Olympic Committee

LA84 Foundation Digital Archives

Olympics at Sports-Reference

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