The FIE and national bodies: who runs fencing, and since when.

The FIE

The Federation Internationale d'Escrime (FIE) says on its About page that it was founded in Paris in 1913, is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, and is recognised by the IOC as the world governing body of fencing. Olympedia gives the founding date as 29 November 1913. Wikipedia adds that the meeting was held at the Automobile Club de France and elected Albert Feyerick, president of the Belgian federation, as first president; no FIE page that could be opened confirms those two details.

The FIE's rules followed quickly. Its historical note says the technical rules were adopted unanimously at an international congress in Paris in June 1914, and first issued as "Rules for Competitions" in 1919 (FIE Rules, Introduction, i.1).

Eight founding nations, or nine

Sources disagree:

• Olympedia says the FIE was formed with eight founding members.
• British Fencing says Great Britain was one of nine founding nations.
• Wikipedia says nine but names only eight: Belgium, Bohemia, France, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway.
• The FIE's own centenary page, as seen only in a search-result extract (the page returned an error), listed nine, adding Germany. The German federation's history, in the Deutsche Biographie, says it has belonged to the FIE since November 1913.

How many members: 156 or 155

The FIE's About page, read on 26 October 2026, claims 156 affiliated member federations, and Olympedia gives 156 as of January 2026. Wikipedia gives 155 national federations as of 2023, and British Fencing says "over 150". One complication: the FIE Congress of 22 November 2025 expelled the Mexican fencing federation (Federacion Mexicana de Esgrima) under article 2.1.1(d) of the FIE Statutes, and whether the About page's 156 reflects that is not known. At that Congress, 139 federations took part, 123 present and 16 by proxy.

How the FIE is organised

As its About page lists it, the FIE has:

• five continental confederations: African, Pan American, Asian (the Fencing Confederation of Asia), European and Oceania;
• a 21-member Executive Committee that manages the FIE between Congresses;
• commissions for athletes, legal matters, medical matters, refereeing, rules, SEMI (equipment), promotion, and communication and marketing;
• councils for coaches, fair play, veterans and women in fencing, plus an Ethics Committee, a Disciplinary Panel and an Anti-doping sub-committee.

Under Statutes amended by the 2025 Congress and applicable from 1 January 2026, Congresses are held each year in late November or early December, save for force majeure, and decide by simple majority of votes cast (articles 3.1 a and 3.5.1). The FIE's current Statutes and Administrative Rules could not be downloaded, so this page relies on the About page and the Congress decisions.

The presidency, as dated documents record it

• The FIE reported that Alisher Usmanov was re-elected president by acclamation at the 2021 Elective Congress in Lausanne, his fourth term; he was first elected in 2008.
• The Swedish Fencing Federation reported that the elective Congress in Tashkent elected Usmanov on 30 November 2024, and that the Executive Committee then accepted his decision to suspend his presidential duties and appointed Emmanuel Katsiadakis interim president. This is a national federation's account, not an FIE document.
• FIE Information Letter 7-25 (1 May 2025) records that Katsiadakis resigned on 24 April 2025 and that on 30 April 2025 the Executive Committee appointed Abdelmoneim ElHusseiny (Egypt) interim President and elected Novak Perovic (South Africa) Vice-President.
• The Congress of 22 November 2025 approved ElHusseiny's appointment as Interim President.
• FIE Information Letter 10-26 of 8 July 2026, the latest FIE document found, is signed by ElHusseiny as Interim President. No source found says whether an election is scheduled.

The same May 2025 letter named a group chaired by Perovic to review the eligibility of athletes, support staff and officials holding Russian or Belarusian passports. In 2026 the FIE Executive Committee decided that, from the 2026 Senior World Championships in Hong Kong, its protective measures were lifted and athletes and officials holding Russian or Belarusian passports could take part in all FIE individual and team events under their national acronyms, uniforms, flags and anthems. The date is given two ways: a search-result extract of FIE Information Letter 8-26 gives the decision as 29 May 2026 (the letter itself returned an error), while 2 June 2026 is the date press reports gave for the announcement. The FIE's article on the decision could be read only as a search-result extract, so its exact wording is unconfirmed. More on the 2026 World Championships page.

National bodies

National federations such as USA Fencing and British Fencing publish their own rules for domestic events, adapted from the FIE's; see national equipment rules. The founding dates below are each body's own, or its source's, as recorded.

Wikipedia also records England Fencing as formed in 2002 as a separate body for England, and lists the home-nation bodies under British Fencing as England Fencing, Scottish Fencing, Welsh Fencing, Northern Ireland Fencing and the Guernsey Union d'Escrime.

Wheelchair fencing's own federation

Wheelchair fencing has its own international federation, which announced on 15 January 2025, through the IPC, that it would be known as World Para Fencing from 2025. No source found says governance has moved to the FIE. See wheelchair fencing.