Fencing's most terrible moment.

Thank you for all your comments. One of my purposes is to disclose the knowledge of fencing in Mexico and Canada, that's the reason why I will keep switching languages through the posts. Hopefully my Canadian friends will someday learn Spanish and the hence I will only have to write in our lovely language.




Today I would like to discuss the most important concept in fencing. I have always taught the young fencers that fencing is a very safe sport, if you practice it wearing the appropiate equipment and always having in mind that this is a sport, not a fight. You are accountable for you safety and for the safety of your opponent, who is a friend is not your enemy.




Maybe the tough leson to learn is what happened to the Russian fencer Wladimir Smirnov, the following is his history.


by Colin Chock
(originally published in "Sports Hawaii", August, 1998 published by Ron Williams of Ron/Glo & Associates, P.O. Box 1521, Pearl City, Hawaii 96782, 808/486-0163.)


The first world-class fencing tournament I saw in person was the '84 Olympics in LA. In my favorite weapon, Foil, I watched from the third row as Mauro Numa of Italy beat Mathias Behr (a tall man from West Germany) in the gold-medal match. Because the Salle Auriol Fencing Club had contributed one fourth of the American fencing team, I decided to move to Portland, Oregon, to join them.

The president of Salle Auriol at that time (and possibly to this day) was Robert Marx, older brother of the great foilist Michael Marx. Robert, an epeeist, won the National Epee Title in '85.
One evening at the Pizza Caboose, where the club meets after practice, Robert told me the following story, which, I must warn you, is not for the faint of heart.

Years before the '84 Olympics, Robert was at the World Fencing Championships when they were held in Rome. Russian Vladimir Smirnov was the defending World Foil Champion and considered by many to be the world's best and most creative fencer - in any weapon.

In those days safety standards weren't as high as they are now. Thus, in a bout with his friend, the above-mentioned Mathias Behr, Smirnov was using a mask that was too old.

I should say here that a foil is three feet long and flexible, but when it eventually breaks, the spike left in the fencer's hand is one-and-a-half feet long and rigid.

Behr, in one particularly ill-fated thrust, broke his foil on Smirnov's torso and, because he was moving too fast to stop, inadvertently shoved his broken foil through Smirnov's mask, the front of Smirnov's skull, and completely through Smirnov's brain. Behr quickly jerked his weapon out of Smirnov's head, allowing Smirnov, his arm moving on reflex only, to pull his mask off. While blood and brain fluid spilled out of the hole in the Russian's forehead, Behr stared in horror into the eyes of the man he had just killed.

Then the world's greatest fencer collapsed, never to rise again.
A few minutes later, Robert Marx, ignorant of what had just happened, walked into the arena. Imagine that. "Hey, what's up, guys? Why the long faces?"
This may sound ridiculous at this point, but fencing is a very safe sport. Freak accidents like this happen very rarely. What are the odds that one of those rare accidents would happen to the World Champion at the World Championships? I have no idea.
Not surprisingly, this is not a story that most fencers find appropriate to tell prospective fencers. So why am I telling you?
First, because I want to discourage everyone from ever using old masks, or from skimping on safety in any way. And second, because the story of Smirnov's death is so spectacular and ironic that it needs to be told, and better you hear it from me. Fencing's most terrible story is the equivalent of Michael Jordan doing a slam-dunk in the NBA finals and having the backboard collapse on him, killing him instantly.
Because of Smirnov's death, the International Fencing Federation raised its safety standards. Among other things, never again would a fencer in a world-class competition be allowed to fence in a mask that was too weak. Fencers are now required to submit their masks to a strength test. If a mask fails, it is destroyed on the spot.
As for Mathias Behr, he took a hiatus from fencing but came back strong and, as I have mentioned, eventually won silver in the Olympics.
By '89 Behr was a referee. He refereed at the '89 World Championships in Denver, where I was his scorekeeper for a short time. After the tournament, Behr shook my hand and said, "Thank you for all your hard work." I thought of the '84 Olympics and wanted to say to him, "Mr. Behr, you remind me that the journey of a gold medallist is not necessarily greater than that of a silver medallist."
But all I managed was, "You're welcome."

Mathias Behr, has been the German National Coach in Foil, since 1990. I met him in a Class A competition in Lisbon, in 1996.

The pictures I am sharing with you today are about a Fencing lesson we have to children of the employees of WET Automotive Systems (my former employer) in Windsor, Ontario. Of course we had to use foam epees.